Cal 


eita  W. 


THE  NEWCOMERS.     Illustrated. 
SARAH  BREWSTER'S  RELATIVES.  Il- 
lustrated. 

LOTTA    EMBURY'S    CAREER.      Illus- 
trated. 

THE  PRECIPICE.     With  Frontispiece. 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

BOSTON   AND   NEW    YORK 


THE  NEWCOMERS 


DELIA   LOOKED   UP,   STARTLED.  .      .    "WHY,  YES,   I   SAW  YOUR 
NECKLACE   ON   THE   DRESSING-TABLE  THAT   DAY!"    (Page  128) 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

By 
Elia  W.  Peattie 

With  Illustrations  by  B.  J.  Rosenmeytr 


Boston  and  New  York 

Houghton  Mifflin  Company 
iTiiiirrsiiH'  press  Cambridge 
1917 


COPYRIGHT,  1916,  BY  PERRY  MASON  COMPANY 
COPYRIGHT,  1917,  BY.BLIA  W.  PEATTIE 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  September  iQiy 


CONTENTS 

I.  A  HARD-LUCK  DAY I 

II.    HOW  THE  LUCK  TURNED        ....      21 

III.  PORTRAITS        .       .    ' 40 

IV.  MYSTERIES 57 

V.  BENEVOLENT  INTRUDERS     ....     74 

VI.  THE  TOPAZ  NECKLACE        ....     90 
VII.  THE  SOFTENING  OF  NANCY  FERRIS  .       .no 

VIII.  PROBLEMS 131 

IX.  THE  QUINCANNONS 152 

X.  THE  HARVEST  MOON 170 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

DELIA  LOOKED  UP,  STARTLED.  .  .  .  "WHY,  YES, 
I  SAW  YOUR  NECKLACE  ON  THE  DRESSING- 
TABLE  THAT  DAY!  "  .  .  .  .Frontispiece 

"I  SEE,"  SAID  PATRICIA,  "THAT  YOU  ARE  OB- 
SERVING THE  DARK  AND  SUSPICIOUS  GLANCES 
HURLED  BY  ONE  GROUP  OF  OUR  TOWNS- 
PEOPLE AT  THE  OTHER  GROUP  "  .  .  .  -52 

WHEN  HE  RECOGNIZED  HER,  THE  SMILE  GAVE 
PLACE  TO  A  FROWN 98 

JUST  THEN  ANNIE  DEE  DASHED  UP  .       .       .158 


From  drawings  by  B.  J.  Rosenmeyer,  reproduced  by  courtesy 
of  The  Youth's  Companion. 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

CHAPTER  I 

A   HARD-LUCK    DAY 

"  IN  half  an  hour/'  said  Rue  Wardell,  look- 
ing at  her  wrist  watch,  "we'll  be  there." 

Annie  Dee  Wardell,  who  had  a  wrist  watch 
of  her  own,  consulted  it  for  confirmation. 
"Time  to  get  our  things  together,"  she  de- 
clared. 

Their  brother,  Robert  Wardell,  carried 
his  watch  in  his  pocket,  but  he  pretended  to 
consult  his  brown,  muscular  wrist. 

"Dear  me,"  he  said  in  a  voice  such  as  his 
sisters  might  be  expected  to  use,  but  did  not, 
"I'm  so  fluttered!  Where's  my  parasol?" 

His  sisters  paid  no  attention  to  him.  It 
was  not  good  for  him  to  know  that  they  were 
secretly  flattered  by  his  impertinences.  His 
mother,  to  be  sure,  did  go  the  length  of  say- 
ing, "Don't  be  foolish,  Robert."  But  she 
really  was  pleased  to  have  him  foolish,  and 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

her  mild  reproof  was  only  a  sign  that  she  was, 
as  her  son  had  put  it,  rather  "fluttered." 

There  would  have  been  some  excuse  for 
her  and  for  the  others  if  they  had  shown 
worry,  for  they  were  out  on  a  hazard  of  new 
fortunes.  They  had  cut  loose  from  their  ac- 
customed moorings,  and  for  the  first  time 
were  going  among  strangers.  But,  as  Mrs. 
Wardell  had  said  over  and  over  again,  it 
hardly  seemed  that  a  family  brought  up  in 
so  big  a  city  as  Chicago  ought  to  fear  a  little 
town  like  Dalroy. 

Mrs.  Wardell  herself  had  not  been  born  in 
Chicago.  Indeed,  she  had  not  left  the  pleas- 
ant Massachusetts  village  where  she  had 
grown  up  until  she  went  to  share  the  for- 
tunes of  Richard  Wardell.  But  always,  in  the 
midst  of  prosperity,  when  she  was  the  mis- 
tress of  a  handsome  house  in  the  city,  she  had 
retained  tender  memories  of  her  home  town 
with  its  neighborliness  and  its  rigid  ideals. 

Eight  years  had  passed  since  her  husband 
had  died.  With  her  fervent  will  to  do  what 
was  best  for  her  children,  she  had  sold  the 
2 


A   HARD-LUCK  DAY 

large  house  and  its  attractive,  almost  sump- 
tuous, furnishings,  and  had  settled  down  in 
a  small  furnished  apartment  near  the  school 
that  Robert  and  the  girls  attended.  And 
there  they  had  valiantly  made  the  best  of 
their  rather  commonplace  circumstances. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-three  Robert  had 
finished  his  course  at  Armour  Institute  and 
accepted  the  position  of  assistant  engineer  in 
the  building  of  a  dam  on  Rock  River  in  cen- 
tral Illinois.  Rue,  three  years  younger,  had 
just  ended  her  first  year  as  a  teacher  of  Eng- 
lish in  what  her  sister  derisively  called  "a 
young  goose's  academy."  Annie  Dee  had 
finished  her  high-school  course  and  was  tak- 
ing some  credit  to  herself  for  having  done  it 
at  the  age  of  seventeen. 

Rue  alone  of  them  all  had  been  doubtful 
about  the  wisdom  of  making  the  change. 

"I  Ve  given  up  my  position,  I  know,"  she 
had  said  with  a  sigh  at  one  of  the  last  family 
councils,  "  but  I  may  be  very  glad  to  ask  for  it 
again  next  September  —  when,  probably,  it 
will  be  too  late  to  get  it  back." 

3 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"You'll  never  ask  for  it  back  if  I  have  my 
way,  sister,"  Annie  Dee  declared.  "I  never 
could  endure  to  see  you  in  that  place,  wast- 
ing your  time  on  those  smirking,  chattering 


creatures." 


"Don't  be  violent,  sis,"  Rue  answered. 
"Their  smirking  and  chattering  did  n't  hurt 
me." 

"Yes,  it  did,  my  dear.  It  put  you  in  a 
wrong  light.  Mother  thinks  just  as  I  do. 
She  was  ashamed  to  have  you  associated 
with  a  school  that  set  shallow  accomplish- 
ments above  real  education." 

Rue's  face  flushed,  but  she  said  nothing. 

"You're  not  saying  anything,  Rue," 
Annie  Dee  ventured  after  a  minute. 

"What  is  there  to  say?  If  I  had  been  able 
to  take  my  normal-school  course,  I  might 
have  commanded  a  position  of  some  con- 
sequence. As  it  is — " 

"As  it  is,"  Robert  broke  in,  "I  hogged  all 

the  education!  Well,  it  can't  be  helped,  Rue. 

My  only  comfort  lies  in  thinking  how  much 

brighter  you  are  than  I.  You'll  make  up  in 

4 


A   HARD-LUCK   DAY 

some  way  for  all  that  youVe  missed;  and 
then,  too,  maybe  you'll  not  have  to  teach 
school  many  years." 

But  whatever  their  arguments  about  the 
benefits  and  disadvantages  of  leaving  the 
city  had  been,  they  were  at  last  sitting,  with 
bags  in  hand,  ready  for  the  train  to  slacken 
at  the  station  of  Dalroy.  To  be  sure,  it  had 
not  been  necessary  that  they  should  all  ac- 
company Robert,  but  they  had  to  spend  the 
summer  somewhere,  and  why  not  with  him, 
since  to  be  together  was  the  chief  desire  of  all 
of  them?  Mrs.  Wardell  hoped  to  find  some 
little  cottage  open  to  sun  and  air,  surrounded 
by  trees,  with  a  garden  plat  and  a  pleasant 
vista. 

"Dalroy  looks  like  the  prettiest  sort  of  a 
place,"  Annie  Dee  announced  as  she  caught 
glimpses  of  the  river  through  a  fine  row  of 
Lombardy  poplars.  "Oh,  mother,  I  know 
we  're  going  to  love  it !  You  will,  especially, 
you  poor  dear,  after  being  shut  up  in  that 
little  flat  so  long." 

"Come,"  said  Rue.  "Here  we  are." 
5 


THE   NEWCOMERS 

A  few  moments  later  the  Wardells  were 
standing  before  the  usual  dark-red  station 
and  marveling  at  two  lackluster  omnibus- 
drivers,  who  stood  in  depressed  and  depress- 
ing silence  beside  their  vehicles.  The  War- 
dells  had  been  the  only  passengers  to  leave 
the  train,  but  a  large,  untidy-looking  man 
with  a  worried  expression  on  his  face  was 
boarding  it.  The  Wardells  could  not  have 
failed  to  notice  him,  for  he  hung  from  the 
platform  of  the  train  even  as  it  pulled  out, 
and  regarded  them  with  a  glance  that 
seemed  to  have  in  it  both  anxiety  and  dis- 
like. 

"Guess  he  has  something  on  his  mind," 
commented  Robert  blithely.  "I  don't  see 
any  signs  of  a  baggageman,  do  you,  Rue  ?  It 
does  n't  seem  right  to  go  away  and  leave  our 
trunks  standing  out  on  the  platform." 

But  the  station  agent,  who  heard,  had  a 
different  opinion. 

"Let  'em  stand,"  he  said.  "Nobody  won't 
hurt  'em." 

"But  where  is  the  baggageman?" 
6 


A   HARD-LUCK  DAY 

"  Gone  away  for  his  health,"  drawled  the 
agent,  and  winked  at  an  imaginary  audi- 
ence. 

Robert  did  not  understand  the  point  of  the 
joke  until,  turning  to  take  one  more  sweep- 
ing inventory  of  their  trunks  and  boxes,  he 
saw  the  agent  himself  swinging  the  luggage 
into  the  storeroom. 

A  tall  young  man,  with  his  hands  in  his 
pockets  and  his  hat  on  the  back  of  his  head, 
stood  leaning  against  the  shady  side  of  the 
station.  To  him  Robert  turned  trustingly  for 
advice. 

"Which  hotel  would  you  recommend  ?"  he 
asked,  indicating  the  waiting  omnibuses,  on 
which  were  lettered  the  faded  legends  that 
they  belonged  respectively  to  "The  Dalroy 
House"  and  "The  Sinnissippi  Hotel." 

The  young  man  looked  out  of  half-closed 
lids  and  dropped  the  one  word,  "Neither." 

"  Perhaps  you  know  of  some  boarding- 
house,  then?" 

"There  ain't  but  one  —  and  it's  for  rail- 
way hands." 

7 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

Robert  would  have  thought  the  young 
man  amusing  if  the  fellow  had  not  been  so 
evidently  ill-natured. 

"  I  choose  the  Dalroy  House,  because  I 
don't  know  how  to  pronounce  the  name  of 
the  other  one ! "  cried  Annie  Dee  gayly.  And 
because  that  seemed  as  good  a  reason  as  any, 
they  were  soon  rattling  up  the  street  behind 
the  bored-looking  horses. 

The  streets  would  have  been  more  pleasant, 
perhaps,  if  they  had  not  been  so  broad. 
They  might  have  been  designed  for  a  world 
capital  —  so  imposing  was  their  width ;  but 
stores,  of  moderate  size  and  of  not  very  at- 
tractive appearance,  lined  the  way,  with 
many  gaps  for  future  buildings.  The  Dal- 
roy House,  however,  had  an  engaging  vil- 
lage look,  as  if  it  had  known  many  experi- 
ences to  which  its  neighbors  were  strangers. 

"  What  a  nice  human  expression  it  has ! " 
said  Annie  Dee  admiringly.  "  I  like  the  old 
paint  and  the  sagging  shutters.  See,  there 
are  trees  in  the  side  yard !  Do  you  think  we 
might  eat  under  them  ?  " 

8 


A   HARD-LUCK   DAY 

"  Why,  there  's  Mr.  Harmon's  office  oppo- 
site!" cried  Robert  with  some  excitement. 

John  Harmon  was  his  employer,  whom  he 
had  not  yet  seen,  and  his  mother  and  sisters 
stared  at  the  little  one-story  office  building 
with  something  like  awe.  The  employer  of 
Robert  was  bound  to  seem  important  to  them. 

With  the  feeling  that  they  were  on  an 
adventure,  the  Wardells  mounted  the  steps 
to  the  wide  veranda  and  passed  into  the  hotel 
office.  They  had  arrived,  and  they  felt  ex- 
hilarated over  the  event.  They  were  even 
willing  to  have  others  exhilarated;  but  the 
group  of  elderly  men  smoking  their  pipes  in 
gloomy  sociability  seemed  to  care  nothing 
about  them.  Even  the  clerk  was  calm  — 
almost  insultingly  so.  He  had  rooms,  yes. 
Good  rooms?  Good  enough,  he  guessed.  A 
bath  ?  No  room  with  a  bath  —  only  general 
baths.  The  price  ?  It  was  not  modest. 

:'We  shall  be  with  you  until  we  find  a 
house,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell  in  that  neigh- 
borly voice  that  long  residence  in  the  city 
had  not  been  able  to  take  from  her.  "  Per- 
9 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

haps  you  will  kindly  tell  us  something  about 
the  vacant  houses  in  town.  Could  we  find  a 
furnished  one,  do  you  think  ? " 

"  There  are  no  vacant  houses  in  town," 
said  the  clerk  indifferently. 

"  None  at  all  ?  "  persisted  Mrs.  Wardell. 
"  Not  some  little  place  that  would  do  for  the 
summer? " 

"  Nothing  at  all,  I  believe,"  the  clerk  re- 
plied in  a  tone  that  seemed  to  say  it  was 
time  to  end  the  conversation. 

The  group  in  the  corner  had  the  air  of 
thinking  the  same  thing  and  thinking  it 
harder.  There  was  an  atmosphere  of  dis- 
couraging chill. 

Annie  Dee  giggled.  "They  don't  need 
electric  fans  here,"  she  whispered  to  her 
sister. 

The  entrance  of  a  young  woman  saved 
the  situation.  She  was  a  tall  girl  with  dark 
eyes  and  a  well-tanned  skin.  Her  plain  frock 
of  white  linen,  her  immaculate  white  canvas 
shoes,  and  her  jaunty,  untrimmed  hat  of 
green  felt  gave  her  an  air  of  distinction. 
10 


A  HARD-LUCK   DAY 

She  was  businesslike,  but  she  had  the  man- 
ner of  being  so  temporarily.  She  bowed  to 
the  clerk  and  won  a  smile  from  him.  Then 
she  approached  the  old  cronies. 

"  Father  is  n't  here  ?  "  she  asked  in  a  tone 
that  had  more  carrying  power  than  she 
seemed  to  realize. 

The  Wardells  had  started  to  get  their 
bags  together,  but  they  lingered,  fascinated. 
How  did  it  happen  that  this  fine  girl  was 
addressing  those  seedy,  idle  gossips  in  the 
tone  of  a  comrade?  The  men  were  appre- 
ciative of  her  favors,  it  seemed.  They  re- 
moved their  pipes,  and  one  of  them  actually 
got  to  his  feet. 

"  Cap  ain't  been  here  all  afternoon,  Miss 
Pat,"  he  said.  "  Was  n't  there  some  talk  of 
his  taking  a  party  down  the  river  ?  Did  you 
happen  to  notice  whether  the  Raven  was  at 
the  dock?" 

"  No,  I  did  n't  come  round  by  the  cabin," 
the  girl  said. 

She  hesitated  a  moment,  and  her  eye 
searched  the  room.  It  seemed  to  the  Wardells 
ii 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

that  she  was  not  accepting  the  word  of  her 
father's  friends  unquestioningly. 

"  It 's  quite  important  that  I  should  see 
him.  If  he  comes  in,  perhaps  you  '11  be  kind 
enough  to  tell  him." 

She  smiled  at  the  men  rather  pleadingly, 
and  they  responded  with  a  chorus  of  assur- 
ances that  they  would  deliver  her  message. 
Her  glance,  which  had  on  her  entrance  passed 
to  the  Wardells  and  swept  on,  now  returned 
to  them  with  an  alert,  friendly  look. 

She  was  nearly  at  the  door,  when  Rue 
suddenly  contrived  to  make  an  opening  for 
acquaintanceship. 

"  Oh,  may  we  see  you  a  moment  ?  "  she 
said,  walking  toward  her.  "  Just  one  little 
moment  —  in  the  parlor?"  She  turned  to 
the  clerk.  "There  is  a  parlor?  " 

There  was ;  the  clerk  pointed  to  it,  and  the 
Wardells  trooped  into  it  with  the  girl. 

"  It 's  about  a  house,"  Rue  began.  "  We 
are  strangers,  as  you  see,  and  we  're  hoping 
to  spend  the  summer  here  because  my  brother 
has  work  in  the  town.  The  clerk  has  quite 

12 


A   HARD-LUCK   DAY 

dismayed  us  by  telling  us  that  there  are  no 
vacant  houses  to  be  had.  Can  that  be  so?  " 

The  girl  thought  a  moment,  while  she 
looked  from  one  to  the  other  with  friendly 
eyes;  but  as  she  reflected,  she  sobered. 

"Oh,"  she  said  at  last  regretfully,  "I 
don't  believe  there 's  one  —  not  a  single  one ! " 

"  How  extraordinary !  "  said  Mrs.  Wardell. 
"  Is  this  such  a  rapidly  growing  town  ?  " 

"  No,  it  couldn't  be  called  that,"  the  girl 
admitted.  "  On  the  contrary,  it 's  a  town 
where  little  building  has  been  done  for 
years." 

"  I  'm  afraid  we  're  in  a  predicament," 
said  Mrs.  Wardell. 

"Yes,"  murmured  the  girl  sympatheti- 
cally. Then  she  laughed.  "  There  are  a  num- 
ber of  persons  in  town  who  would  be  very 
glad  to  get  away," she  said.  "The  only  thing 
I  can  suggest  is  that  you  let  them  know  you 
want  to  move  in.  Perhaps  that  will  give  them 
the  impulse  to  go." 

"  Why  do  they  want  to  go? "  demanded 
Annie  Dee. 

13 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"  I  don't  suppose  they  all  have  the  same 
reason,"  she  said.  "  But  a  little  town  is 
something  like  a  story  often  told  —  you  may 
get  tired  of  it." 

"  I  'm  afraid  we  have  been  very  unbusi- 
nesslike in  coming  here  without  making 
proper  inquiries,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell.  <!<  We 
're  so  used  to  living  where  we  can  get  any- 
thing we  have  the  money  to  pay  for  that 
we  're  spoiled.  It  never  occurred  to  us  that 
we  could  n't  find  a  house." 

"I  see,"  said  the  girl.  "Well,  when  I 
want  anything  terribly  it  usually  comes  to 
me.  I  hope  you  '11  have  the  same  luck.  If  I 
can  do  anything  at  all  for  you,  call  me  up  by 
telephone  —  Patricia  Quincannon,  29  Blue. 
And  if  I  hear  of  anything,  shall  I  communi- 
cate with  you  here  ?  " 

"  Would  you?  "  cried  Robert.  "  You  are 
very  kind  indeed.  Wardell  is  our  name.  This 
is  my  mother,  Miss  Quincannon;  these  are 
my  sisters."  That  would  have  seemed  suffi- 
cient, but  he  added  with  an  air  of  awkward 
isolation,  "  I  am  Robert  Wardell." 
14 


A   HARD-LUCK   DAY 

A  gleam  of  something  like  mischief  shone 
in  the  girl's  eyes,  but  before  Robert  could 
decide  what  it  meant  she  had  made  her  bows 
and  farewells  and  was  gone. 

There  was  nothing  left  now  for  the  War- 
dells  to  do  except  to  go  to  their  rooms,  which, 
as  Annie  Dee  said,  was  a  stupid  proceeding 
when  they  were  all  keyed  up  for  something 
stirring.  The  rooms  proved  to  be  pleasant 
enough,  but  they  suggested  appalling  in- 
activity. 

"  Run  over  and  call  on  Mr.  Harmon, 
Robert,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell.  "He  ought  to 
know  that  you  Ve  come." 

Robert  was  gone  a  long  time ;  long  enough 
for  the  girls  and  Mrs.  Wardell  to  have  their 
trunks  brought  to  their  rooms  and  for  them 
to  unpack  their  handbags.  Annie  Dee  was 
walking  round  and  round,  trying,  she  said, 
to  distribute  her  vibrations  and  make  the 
place  seem  homelike,  when  Robert  came  back. 
His  face  was  white  and  his  manner  disturbed. 

"What  is  it?"  the  three  demanded  at 
once.  "  What 's  wrong  ?  " 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"  Everything !  Mr.  Harmon  was  horrified 
when  he  heard  that  I  had  brought  you  all 
with  me.  He  had  no  idea  of  my  doing  such  a 
thing.  He  said  Dalroy  was  a  wretched  hole 
as  far  as  accommodations  went,  and  that 
anyway  —  "  He  paused. 

"  Anyway,"  they  all  prompted. 

"  He  is  n't  sure  that  the  dam  's  going  to 
be  built." 

"Why  not? "  demanded  Mrs.  Wardell  in 
the  very  quiet  voice  that  she  used  when 
excited. 

"  Oh,  it  seems  that  there  is  opposition  on 
every  hand!  The  people  don't  want  a  fac- 
tory here  —  particularly  a  furniture  factory. 
A  number  of  the  leading  citizens  are  stock- 
holders in  a  furniture  factory  in  a  town 
twenty  miles  down  the  river,  and  they  don't 
want  competition.  But  that  is  n't  all.  The 
dam  will  flood  fifty  acres  of  low,  sedgy  land 
on  the  farther  bank  of  the  river.  That  land 
has  never  been  considered  of  the  slightest 
value,  and  Mr.  Harmon  supposed  he  should 
have  no  trouble  in  buying  it,  at  a  moderate 
16 


A   HARD-LUCK   DAY 

figure,  of  course.  But  now  the  old  duffer  who 
owns  it  declares  that  he  was  about  to  drain 
it  and  raise  corn  on  it,  and  is  offering  figures 
to  show  how  much  corn  per  acre  can  be  raised 
on  precisely  that  kind  of  land.  He  refuses 
to  sell  it  at  a  reasonable  figure  and  has  served 
an  injunction  to  prevent  Mr.  Harmon  from 
building  the  dam.  The  whole  scheme  's  tied 
up.  Meanwhile  —  no  work  and  no  salary 
for  Bobbie  Wardell." 

"No  salary?  But  you  are  here  —  you'll 
give  them  your  time.  It  is  n't  your  fault 
that—" 

"And  you  refused  that  other  position." 

"And  now  it 's  too  late  to  take  that  back ! " 

"No  job  and  no  home,"  said  Rue  nerv- 
ously. 

"We  have  no  more  sense,"  announced 
Annie  Dee  feelingly,  "than  rabbits." 

"Not  so  much,"  said  her  brother. 

For  five  minutes  they  gloomily  sat  in  si- 
lence, thinking  of  what  they  might  have  done 
and  of  what  they  might  have  left  undone. 
It  was  not  a  cheerful  moment,  although  it 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

was  a  vivid  one,  and  they  were  often  to  re- 
member it  in  years  to  come. 

It  was  Annie  Dee  who  first  reentered  the 
ranks  of  the  courageous.  "  Come,"  she  said, 
"let's  have  lemonade  served  in  the  garden. 
It  will  be  cooling  for  the  brain." 

It  was  a  pleasing  thought,  and  they  im- 
mediately descended  to  the  office. 

"May  we  have  some  lemonade?"  asked 
Annie  Dee  with  what  cheerfulness  she  could 
summon.  "And  we'd  like  it  served  in  the 
garden,  please." 

The  gossips  by  the  window  turned  to  stare. 
The  clerk  removed  his  pen  from  behind  his 
ear  and  replaced  it  again. 

"We  serve  nothing  here  except  at  meal- 
times. And  we  never  serve  anything  except 
in  the  dining-room  or,  in  case  of  sickness,  in 
private  rooms." 

"I  wish,"  Annie  Dee  replied,  fixing  the 
clerk  with  a  steady  gaze,  "  that  I  were  run- 
ning this  hotel.  I'd  try  to  make  my  guests 
have  a  pleasant  time." 

"Annie  Dee!"  said  her  mother  in  reproof. 
18 


A  HARD-LUCK  DAY 

But  the  girl  paid  no  attention.  She  swept 
out  to  the  street  and  the  others  aimlessly 
followed  her. 

"Oh,  it's  blistering  hot  out  here!"  said 
Rue.  "Where  are  you  going,  Annie  Dee? 
We  can't  roam  round  in  this  heat.  Why  not 
go  back  to  our  rooms?  There  does  n't  seem 
to  be  any  other  place  to  go." 

When  she  remembered  that  even  that  com- 
monplace refuge  was  an  extravagance  that 
they  could  ill  afford,  she  could  hardly  keep 
back  her  tears.  Worn  out  with  her  year  of 
teaching,  Rue  was  not  in  such  good  righting 
trim  as  her  sister. 

"Go  back  to  our  rooms?"  Annie  Dee 
cried,  not  caring  in  the  least  that  her  defi- 
ant young  voice  was  being  wafted  back  to 
the  ears  of  that  wooden  hotel  clerk  and  the 
group  of  smoking  cronies.  "  Not  a  bit  of  it ! 
We  '11  go  and  find  a  house  where  we  can  make 
our  own  lemonade." 

"What  is  the  use  in  finding  a  house  if 
there 's  no  work  for  Bob  ? "  asked  Rue  brok- 
enly. 

19 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"There'll  be  work,"  Annie  Dee  declared. 
"You  would  n't  want  him  to  run  away 
because  there  are  difficulties,  would  you? 
There  are  always  difficulties  in  business." 

"  I  had  no  thought  of  running  away,"  said 
Robert  quietly.  "Mr.  Harmon  would  think 
very  poorly  of  me  if  I  did.  I  Ve  merely  got 
to  share  his  hard  luck." 

Mrs.  Wardell's  lips  were  drawn  in  a 
straight  line  and  her  eyes  had  what  Annie 
Dee  called  their  "turned-in  look." 

"Let's  go  on,"  she  said,  looking  down  the 
street,  where  the  heat  rose  in  visible  waves. 
"We  may  as  well  see  what  is  to  be  seen." 


CHAPTER  II 

HOW   THE    LUCK    TURNED 

ROBERT'S  employer,  Mr.  Harmon,  called 
in  the  evening  to  pay  his  respects  to  Mrs. 
Wardell,  and  in  the  dim  hotel  parlor  the 
question  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  all  of 
them  was  discussed. 

"I'll  admit,"  said  Mr.  Harmon,  who  was 
much  younger  than  the  girls  had  expected 
him  to  be,  "that  when  I  sent  for  your  son  I 
thought  him  foot-loose,  as  a  young  man  just 
out  of  college  usually  is.  Had  I  known  that 
it  was  otherwise  with  him,  I  should  have 
wired  to  him  at  once  when  the  injunction 
was  served  and  told  him  not  to  come.  I 
let  him  come,  even  when  things  were  so  dis- 
couraging, because  I  thought  I  might  be 
able  to  use  him  in  little  ways  and  that  he 
might  be  content  for  a  time  upon  part  of  the 
salary  that  I  originally  promised  him." 

"I  see  your  position  perfectly,  and  you  are 

21 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

to  feel  no  responsibility  whatever  concerning 
us,"  Mrs.  Wardell  responded,  so  pleasantly 
that  only  her  children  could  guess  how  much 
pride  the  remark  covered.  "We  have  to 
spend  the  summer  somewhere,  and  naturally 
we  prefer  to  spend  it  with  Robert  if  pos- 
sible/' 

"As  matters  stand,"  said  Mr.  Harmon, 
"  I  find  myself  completely  tied  up,  and  even 
those  small  details  with  which  I  had  hoped 
to  occupy  him  temporarily  must  be  set  aside 
for  a  time.  You  see,  Dalroy  is  one  of  those 
mean  little  towns  where  every  one  seems  to 
enjoy  setting  a  spoke  in  the  wheel  of  every 
one  else,  though  of  course  there  are  some  fine 
people  here.  Just  at  present  the  whole  town 
is  torn  up  over  a  school  quarrel.  The  school 
principal  here  is  a  regular  back  number  who 
refuses  to  get  out  till  he 's  thrown  out.  One 
of  the  teachers,  an  up-and-coming  young 
woman,  put  the  trustees  up  to  sending  for  a 
woman  of  radical  methods  to  come  here  and 
be  looked  over.  She's  expected  any  day,  and 
meanwhile  the  town  talks  of  little  else,  and 
22 


HOW   THE  LUCK   TURNED 

poor  old  Rysdael,  the  present  incumbent, 
has  left  in  a  huff." 

"A  man  with  a  large  head  and  no  creases 
in  his  trousers?"  asked  Annie  Dee  explo- 
sively. 

"  Just !  You  Ve  seen  him  ? " 

"He  got  on  the  train  as  we  got  off,  and 
glared  at  us.  Probably  he  thought  mother 
was  his  rival." 

"Very  likely.  The  poor  man  has  taught 
school  here  for  the  last  twenty-eight  years 
and  has  had  little  enough  pay  for  it.  He  had 
an  invalid  wife  into  the  bargain;  but  she's 
gone  now,  and  his  daughter  keeps  house  for 
him.  Naturally,  they  feel  very  bitter,  and  no 
one  can  help  sympathizing  with  them.  But 
of  course  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest 
number  is  what  has  to  be  considered.  I'm 
always  on  the  side  of  progress." 

"Naturally,"  murmured  the  Wardells. 

"Now,  here  I  am  being  held  back  by  a  lot 
of  barnacles.  The  man  who  served  that  in- 
junction on  me  is  a  lazy  old  crank  who  has 
held  the  property  half  a  lifetime  and  has 
23 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

never  done  a  thing  with  it.  He  lives  in  a  sort 
of  house-boat  affair  down  on  the  river  and 
runs  a  little  steam  yacht  for  excursionists. 
Now,  he  does  n't  want  the  land  that  he's 
making  all  this  trouble  about;  yet  he  won't 
sell  it  at  a  reasonable  price.  He's  tickled  to 
death  to  be  spiking  my  guns.  However,  I  '11 
get  that  injunction  set  aside  just  as  sure  as 
the  sun  rises.  When  I  '11  be  able  to  do  it  is,  of 
course,  another  question." 

When  Mr.  Harmon  was  leaving,  after  an 
evening  in  which  the  Wardells  showed  their 
talents  as  listeners,  he  invited  them  to  go 
driving  with  him  the  next  afternoon.  He 
wished  to  show  them  the  country,  he  said, 
for  by  and  by,  when  the  work  began,  there 
would  be  no  time  for  pleasure  jaunts. 

The  next  morning  found  the  Wardells,  for 
no  reason  that  they  could  have  given,  early 
at  the  breakfast  table.  Rue,  whose  nerves 
had  been  shaken  by  a  prolonged  succession 
of  entertainments  at  the  closing  of  the  Ingle- 
dew  Academy,  —  "fluffy"  entertainments, 
as  Annie  Dee  described  them,  —  was  re- 
24 


stored  by  her  night's  rest ;  the  fact  that  there 
were  very  real  difficulties  to  face  stimulated 
her.  She  was  much  more  like  her  mother 
than  Annie  Dee  was ;  she  had  the  same  placid 
brow,  the  same  gentle  eyes,  the  same  soft 
brown  hair.  Annie  Dee  was  keener,  more 
impulsive,  more  likely  to  pay  for  to-day's 
adventure  with  to-morrow's  regret. 

"Somewhere  in  this  town,"  Rue  an- 
nounced at  breakfast,  "is  a  house  where  the 
Wardells  are  going  to  live,  and  I'm  going 
out  to  find  it." 

"I'm  with  you!"  Annie  Dee  cried.  "Will 
you  come,  mother?" 

But  Mrs.  Wardell  was  tired  and  decided 
to  stay  quietly  on  the  shady  porch.  As  for 
Robert,  he  mysteriously  disappeared,  and 
the  two  sisters,  fresh-gowned,  rejoicing  in 
the  comparative  coolness  of  the  midsummer 
morning,  set  forth. 

Keeping  carefully  on  the  shady  side  of 
the  street,  they  walked  up  and  down  and 
took  stock  of  Dalroy's  residences.  Very 
pleasant  some  of  them  were,  flanked  by 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

porches  and  set  amid  lawns.  Some  were 
lowly  and  inviting,  others  bore  the  unmis- 
takable stamp  of  aristocracy;  but  all,  hum- 
ble and  grand,  had  the  appearance  of  being 
occupied  by  the  persons  who  had  built  them 
and  who  had  every  intention  of  passing  them 
on  to  their  descendants. 

"Let's  look  for  barns,"  said  Rue.  "I've 
heard  of  charming  houses  being  made  out  of 
barns.  If  we  can  find  a  picturesque  one  that 
is  n't  being  used,  maybe  they'll  let  us  have 


it.'3 


It  sounded  like  a  pathetic  last  resort,  but 
the  girls  were  not  feeling  pathetic ;  they  were 
in  far  too  aggressive  a  mood  for  that.  In 
order  to  look  for  barns  they  turned  into  a 
street,  if  street  it  could  be  called,  that  seemed 
to  have  been  neglected  and  left  unimproved. 
Trees  and  shrubs  grew  beside  the  road,  and 
flower  beds,  neglected  but  still  beautiful,  re- 
tained their  shape  amid  the  wild  growth  of 
weeds  and  grass.  Evidently  the  street  had 
been  cut  through  the  heart  of  some  fine  old 
farm.  Almost  forgetting  their  quest  in  the 
26 


HOW   THE   LUCK   TURNED 

enjoyment  of  this  pleasant  path,  they  wan- 
dered on  with  strangely  light  hearts. 

And  then,  most  unexpectedly,  they  came 
upon  the  house.  They  knew  it  for  the  house 
as  soon  as  their  eyes  fell  upon  it.  The  little 
Gothic  cottage,  indescribably  suggestive  of 
modesty  and  decorum,  of  sweetness  and 
placidity,  seemed  to  be  waiting  just  for  them. 
The  pale-green  paneled  shutters  kept  the 
inquisitive  from  seeing  within  the  narrow 
windows;  the  moss-grown  roof  sloped  to  a 
charming  porch,  and  at  each  end  of  the  little 
neglected  house  rose  a  chimney  of  mellow 
old  red  brick. 

"Annie  Dee!"  gasped  Rue,  clutching  her 
sister's  arm.  "There  it  is!  We've  found  it." 

A  nearer  view  of  the  house  brought  no  fur- 
ther knowledge  of  it.  The  weeds  had  had 
their  way  for  years  in  a  rich  soil  and  had 
succeeded  in  hiding  every  trace  of  a  path; 
and  nothing  could  have  been  more  secretive 
than  those  solid  shutters.  Altogether  it 
looked  a  place  of  gentle  mystery. 

"And  there's  another  house,"  said  Rue. 
27 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"  Some  one  is  living  in  it,  I  think.  Do  you  see 
it,  back  there  among  the  trees?" 

This  second  house  was  a  weathered,  home- 
like place  of  moderate  size,  standing  in  a 
grove  of  fine  trees.  As  the  girls  passed 
through  the  high  gateway  and  walked  up  the 
winding  path,  squirrels  scolded  them  from 
the  great  elms  and  martins  fluttered  about 
the  groups  of  bird  houses.  No  one  answered 
their  knock  at  the  front  door,  and  they  ven- 
tured to  the  side  of  the  house,  whence  came 
the  pleasant  sound  of  a  carpenter's  plane. 
The  door  of  a  little  workroom  stood  open, 
and  Rue,  looking  in,  saw,  not  the  masculine 
artisan  she  had  expected  to  find,  but  a  young 
woman  with  a  sad,  somewhat  bitter  face, 
occupied  in  smoothing  the  edge  of  a  plank 
which  was  clamped  in  a  vise.  She  stopped, 
startled  by  the  presence  of  her  visitors,  and 
looked  at  them  with  mingled  shyness  and  an- 
noyance. 

"Please  excuse  us,"  said  Rue.  "But  we've 
come   to  ask  about  the  house  next  door. 
Could  you  tell  us  who  owns  it?" 
28 


HOW   THE  LUCK   TURNED 

The  woman  wiped  her  brow  with  an  em- 
barrassed gesture  and  came  out  into  the 
open. 

"  I  can  tell  you  the  names  of  the  owners," 
she  said  primly,  "but  not  their  address.  That 
house  belonged  to  Miss  Amrah  Curtis,  and 
she  lived  in  it  for  forty  years.  When  she  died 
she  willed  it  to  her  nephews,  the  only  kin  she 
had.  They  were  here  at  the  funeral,  but  they 
have  n't  been  back  since." 

"It  doesn't  look  so  very  ruinous,"  said 
Rue.  "Only  neglected." 

"Where  do  those  nephews  live,  please?" 
Annie  Dee  inquired. 

"  In  Chicago.  They  Ve  gone  into  college 
or  business,  I  don't  know  which — or  where." 

"Do  you  know  their  names?" 

"Certainly.  I've  known  them  since  they 
were  babies.  They  are  Gordon  and  Wylie 
Curtis." 

"I  do  wish  we  had  the  key!"  sighed  Rue, 

still  gazing  at  the  house.  Then  something  in 

the  silence  of  the  carpenter  woman  made  her 

ask,  "You  have  n't  the  key  by  any  chance?" 

29 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"I  have  the  key,"  the  other  admitted, 
flushing,  "but  I  don't  care  to  take  any  re- 
sponsibility about  showing  the  house.  Three 
times  when  I  thought  I  had  tenants  the  boys 
refused  to  rent  it." 

"But  why?" 

"They  wanted  a  description  of  the  people, 
and  I  gave  it  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  In 
each  case  they  said  they  were  afraid  people 
like  that  would  n't  understand  the  place. 
You  see,  everything  is  just  as  their  aunt  left 
it,  and  they  want  it  kept  that  way." 

"I'm  sure,"  declared  Rue,  "that  we  are 
the  very  people  for  the  house.  Miss  Curtis 
must  have  been  very  nice  or  her  nephews 
would  n't  feel  that  way  about  her.  If  you 
described  us  in  your  most  complimentary 
manner,  do  you  think  we  'd  be  accepted,  Miss 
— pardon  me,  I  don't  know  your  name." 

"Miss  Rysdael." 

"We'd  better  write  a  description  of  our- 
selves," said  Annie  Dee,  with  a  laugh.  "We 
're  so  much  nicer  than  we  look." 

"Oh,  perhaps  you  are  the  daughter  of  that 
30 


HOW   THE   LUCK   TURNED 

Mr.  Rysdael  who  is  principal  of  the  Dalroy 
school?"  asked  Rue  with  sudden  recollection. 

"Yes,"  said  the  other,  stiffening,  "I  am." 

Rue  paid  no  attention  to  this  frigidity. 
"I'm  a  school-teacher  myself,"  she  said, 
"but  I've  just  given  up  my  position." 

"Indeed,"  said  Miss  Rysdael  coldly. 

For  a  minute  Rue  felt  angry  at  the  girl's 
irritating  way;  then,  when  she  remembered 
what  John  Harmon  had  said  of  her,  —  that 
she  had  passed  her  youth  in  caring  for  an  in- 
valid mother  and  that  now  she  had  to  share 
the  misfortunes  of  a  querulous  father,  —  a 
wave  of  compassion  for  her  swept  over  Rue 
Wardell. 

"We  want  the  house  very  much,"  she  said 
with  a  smile.  "We  are  homeless,  yet  we  must 
stay  here.  I  think  we  '11  try  to  get  word  to  the 
Curtis  nephews,  and  if  they  give  us  permis- 
sion we'll  come  again  for  the  key." 

"If  those  boys  are  in  Chicago,  we'll  find 
them,"  Rue  declared  to  Annie  Dee,  as  the  two 
walked  back  along  the  lane.  "Will  mother 
want  to  see  the  house  before  we  do  anything? " 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

Mrs.  Wardell,  when  they  had  told  their 
story,  cheerfully  relinquished  any  responsi- 
bility. 

"Make  the  finding  of  a  home  your  achieve- 
ment," she  said.  "I  Ve  had  the  pleasure  and 
the  worry  of  making  decisions  for  us  all  for 
eight  long  years  now.  If  you  are  ready  to  do 
some  of  the  experimenting,  I'm  willing  to 
let  you." 

They  hurried  to  the  telegraph  office  and 
sent  the  following  message  to  a  friend:— 

Please  consult  directory  and  find  address 
Gordon  and  Wylie  Curtis. 

In  an  hour  the  answer  was  in  their  hands : 

Curtis  Brothers,  automobile  supplies,  No.  - 
Michigan  Avenue. 

Forthwith  the  girls  telegraphed  to  that 
address :  — 

Would  like  to  rent  your  cottage.  Wire  per- 
mission for  key. 

RUE  AND  ANNIE  DEE  WARDELL. 

"Would  n't  it  have  been  better  if  you  had 
signed  your  brother's  name?"  Mrs.  Wardell 
asked  them  later. 

32 


HOW   THE  LUCK   TURNED 

"Oh,  mother,"  said  Annie  Dee  reproach- 
fully, "you  said  we  could  do  it  all  by  our- 
selves!" 

"Do  be  wise,  then,  Annie  Dee,"  Mrs. 
Ward  ell  pleaded.  "You  are  so  —  so  adven- 
turous." 

Early  in  the  afternoon  they  received  a 
reply  from  the  Curtises;  it  was  distinctly 
noncommittal :  — 

Did  not  know  cottage  was  habitable.  Will 
consider  proposition,  but  would  like  to  know 
something  about  you. 

"Now,  what  are  we  to  do?"  demanded 
Rue.  "Of  course  we  can  give  them  refer- 
ences, but,  after  all,  how  will  they  know  that 
we're  the  very  persons  to  respect  a  place 
sacred  to  the  memory  of  Aunt  Amrah!" 

"Oh,  Rue,  I  have  it!"  Annie  Dee  declared. 
"Let's  send  them  that  family  group  we  had 
taken  on  mother's  last  birthday.  Her  face 
would  win  any  one  over." 

The  photograph  went,  and  with  it  this 
letter:  — 

You  will  find  herewith  the  names  and  ad- 
33 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

dresses  of  a  number  of  friends  who  will  answer 
any  questions  you  choose  to  ask  concerning  us. 
You  see,  it  is  this  way:  we  must  have  a  house, 
and  yours  is  the  only  vacant  one  in  town.  We 
understand  that  you  wish  your  aunt's  belong- 
ings to  be  treated  with  respect.  We  have  not 
seen  them,  but  the  probabilities  are  that  we 
shall  go  further  and  treat  them  with  affection. 
If  the  inside  of  the  house  is  half  as  quaint  and 
appealing  as  the  outside,  we  shall  value  it  in- 
deed. If  we  make  your  cottage  rentable  for 
future  tenants,  will  you  give  us  the  place  rent 
free  for  a  year? 

When  they  got  back  to  the  hotel,  after 
mailing  the  letter  and  the  photograph,  they 
found  their  brother,  hot  and  dusty,  but  well 
pleased.  He  quickly  showed  them  that  in  the 
matter  of  enterprise  they  had  not  got  ahead 
of  him. 

"When  I  realized  that  Mr.  Harmon 
would  n't  need  me  for  a  month  at  least,"  he 
said,  "I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  'd  find  some 
profitable  way  of  putting  in  my  time;  so  I 
went  hunting  for  a  temporary  job.  People 
were  pretty  unresponsive  at  first — wanted 
to  talk  about  the  dam.  I  told  them  I  had  n't 
34 


HOW   THE  LUCK  TURNED 

come  to  talk  about  that.  I  wanted  some 
bookkeeping  or  auditing  to  do ;  I  said  that  I 
was  willing  to  take  inventory  of  stock  or  that 
I'd  act  as  clerk.  I  made  it  plain  that  I  was 
an  engineer,  but  that  I  did  n't  propose  to  sit 
around  and  think  about  it.  Well,  I  landed 
something  fairly  good." 

"Oh,  tell  us,  Bob!"  cried  his  sisters. 

"It's  getting  the  production  cost  for  a 
cottage-organ  factory  that  started  up  about 
six  months  ago.  The  man 's  making  and  sell- 
ing some  very  good  little  instruments,  but  he 
is  n't  sure  of  his  manufacturing  cost.  I  told 
him  that  was  just  the  sort  of  puzzle  that 
appealed  to  me;  so  to-morrow  I  start  at 
it." 

"How  nice!"  Annie  Dee  exclaimed.  "And 
we're  going  to  get  a  home  for  you." 

At  that  the  two  girls  excitedly  began  to 
tell  him  about  the  house. 

When  John  Harmon's  fine  car  purred  up 
to  the  veranda,  the  four  Wardells  awaited 
him. 

"I  want  to  show  you  some  of  the  prettiest 
35 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

roads  in  the  whole  country,"  he  said,  as 
he  turned  his  machine  riverward.  "In  my 
opinion,  this  is  going  to  be  a  stirring  town 
some  time.  The  site  is  excellent.  All  that  is 
needed  is  enterprise.  A  few  old  mossbacks 
have  been  running  the  place;  that  old  man 
who  served  the  injunction  on  me  and  put 
my  work  back  weeks  — perhaps  months  —  is 
a  case  in  point.  I  want  you  to  see  where  he 
lives  and  then  you  can  form  an  idea  of  his 
character." 

He  turned  the  machine  as  he  spoke,  and 
they  swept  along  the  river-bank  beneath 
beautiful  overhanging  trees. 

"There's  his  house  now!  Did  you  ever 
see  the  like  of  that?" 

The  Wardells  never  had  seen  the  like  of  it, 
but  they  had  to  admit  to  themselves  that 
they  thought  it  rather  attractive. 

It  was  a  stanch  little  habitation  shaped 
like  the  cabin  of  a  boat,  standing  on  strong 
cedar  piers  at  least  twelve  feet  above  the  sur- 
face of  the  water  and  well  out  from  shore. 
Six  small  windows  on  each  side  of  the  cabin 
36 


HOW   THE   LUCK   TURNED 

commanded  the  views  of  the  river,  and  from 
the  bow  waved  the  American  flag,  and  under 
it  a  pennant  bearing  a  black  raven  on  a  white 
ground.  A  wharf  and  a  flight  of  steps  gave 
communication  with  the  shore. 

"The  place  is  perfectly  fitted  up  inside/' 
Mr.  Harmon  admitted.  "There's  a  cook's 
galley  and  a  sitting-room  and  a  room  with 
bunks.  It's  a  snug  little  hole  all  right,  but 
what  does  a  man  mean  by  living  in  that  sort 
of  place  and  associating  with  all  the  old  loaf- 
ers in  town,  when  he  could  have  a  proper 
home  ?  Why  is  n't  he  taking  care  of  his 
daughter,  who  is  as  fine  a  girl  as  any  in  Dal- 
roy?  I  think  the  man  must  be  a  little  off  in 
the  upper  story.  Why,  he  came  of  a  good 
family  and  married  into  a  better  one,  yet  he's 
willing  to  lead  an  eccentric,  half-vagabond 
existence !  He 's  a  fine-looking  man,  too,  but 
I  never  see  him  without  noticing  that  his 
eyes  are  a  little  too  near  together.  That's  a 
bad  sign,  according  to  my  observation.  Stop 
here  a  moment,  you  say  ?  Yes,  immense  view, 
is  n't  it?" 

37 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

It  was,  but  neither  Robert  nor  his  sisters 
had  eyes  for  it.  When  the  motor  had  paused 
at  their  mother's  request,  they  became  aware 
of  the  figure  of  Patricia  Quincannon  erectly 
approaching.  She  did  not  at  first  see  them, 
but  when  she  did  she  bowed  in  rather  re- 
served recognition. 

"  She  does  n't  seem  so  cordial  as  she  did 
yesterday,"  said  Annie  Dee. 

"I  can  guess  why,"  said  John  Harmon. 
"  She 's  on  her  way  to  visit  her  father,  and  she 
hopes  to  make  you  think  she's  proud  to  be 
seen  doing  it." 

"To  visit  her  father?"  repeated  Robert 
vaguely,  watching  the  tall  figure  of  the  girl 
as  she  swung  on  down  the  road. 

"Surely!  "cried  Mr.  Harmon.  "See,  there 
she  goes !  Old  cap 's  at  home,  too." 

"You  mean,"  faltered  Robert,  "that  Miss 
Quincannon  is  the  daughter  of — " 

"Of  old  Captain  Quincannon,  of  course. 
Whose  daughter  should  she  be?" 

None  of  the  Wardells  answered.  They  saw 
the  girl  cross  the  little  wharf  and  climb  the 
38 


HOW   THE  LUCK  TURNED 

narrow  steps  to  the  boathouse.  She  still 
carried  her  head  very  high  and  entered  the 
door  as  if  it  had  been  the  portal  of  an  ances- 
tral mansion. 


CHAPTER  III 

PORTRAITS 

"WHAT,  didn't  you  know  that?"  asked 
Mr.  Harmon.  "  Pshaw,  yes !  Patricia  Quin- 
cannon,  the  finest  girl  in  the  county,  is  the 
daughter  of  the  old  man  who  lives  in  that 
silly  structure  on  stilts ;  but  Patricia  does  n't 
live  with  him.  Mrs.  Thwait,  who  is  at  the 
head  of  things  in  Dalroy,  treats  her  like  a 
daughter.  She  sent  her  away  to  school,  and 
the  girl  fitted  herself  to  be  a  teacher  accord- 
ing to  the  most  advanced  methods.  Patri- 
cia's the  one  who  proposed  that  Miss  Tor- 
rey  be  sent  for." 

"The  woman  they're  trying  to  get  for 
principal?" 

"The  same.  You  see,  Miss  Torrey  has  a 
big  reputation  for  a  young  woman.  She'll  be 
coming  along  in  a  day  or  two  now,  I  hear, 
and  then  you'll  think  all  the  bees  in  the 
county  are  swarming." 
40 


PORTRAITS 

"I  simply  love  to  read  about  girls  with 
strange,  disreputable  parents,"  said  Annie 
Dee  that  evening,  when  the  four  of  them 
were  again  by  themselves.  "But  when  it 
comes  to  knowing  and  associating  with  them, 
it's  different." 

"You  have  n't  been  asked  yet  to  associate 
with  Miss  Quincannon,  Annie  Dee,"  said  her 
brother  rather  sharply.  "And  how  do  we 
know  her  father  is  disreputable  ?  We  have  n't 
laid  eyes  on  him  yet ;  and  naturally  Mr.  Har- 
mon is  in  no  mood  to  put  him  in  a  flattering 
light." 

"No,  we  won't  call  her  father  disreputa- 
ble," said  Mrs.  Wardell  amiably.  "Neither 
will  we  lose  our  heads  over  the  girl  because 
she 's  good  to  look  at  and  has  agreeable  man- 
ners. One  would  be  as  foolish  as  the  other." 

"Oh,  but,  mother,  there's  no  mistaking 
her!"  protested  Rue.  "She's  wonderful!" 

"If  she's  wonderful,"  Mrs.  Wardell  con- 
cluded, "there's  an  end  of  argument.  Given 
personality  enough,  any  one  can  emerge 
from  hard  situations." 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

The  next  morning  the  girls  decided  to  go 
for  a  row  on  the  river.  After  exploring  the 
bank  for  a  little  distance,  they  pulled  into  the 
shade  of  some  overhanging  willows.  The  sun 
was  hot  out  on  the  river,  and  the  girls  were 
glad  to  rest  in  their  little  retreat.  Rue  be- 
gan to  sing  softly  and  Annie  Dee  joined  in ; 
then,  after  a  time,  for  no  reason  that  they 
could  have  told,  they  became  silent,  content 
to  listen  to  the  lisping  of  the  water  about  the 
boat.  That  was  how  it  happened  that  two 
persons  walking  along  the  path  on  the  bank 
knew  nothing  of  their  presence. 

"How  long  are  you  going  to  hound  me, 
Pat?"  a  man  said  gruffly.  "Haven't  you 
known  me  long  enough  to  understand  that 
I  '11  do  what  I  please  without  consulting  any 
one  —  least  of  all  a  daughter  that's  too 
proud  to  live  with  me?" 

"But,  dad,"  pleaded  a  voice  that  they 
easily  recognized  as  Patricia  Quincannon's, 
"what  is  the  use  of  spoiling  Mr.  Harmon's 
plans  and  keeping  many  men  out  of  work  for 
the  summer?  Sooner  or  later  Mr.  Harmon's 
42 


PORTRAITS 

going  to  come  out  ahead,  and  holding  him 
back  like  this  seems  spiteful.  I  hear  people 
saying  what  they  think  of  you,  and  —  and  it 
seems  as  if  I  could  n't  stand  it." 

"  I  did  n't  know  you  were  so  sensitive 
about  me,  Pat.  If  you  take  such  an  interest 
in  me,  why  don't  you  come  and  live  with  me 
and  act  as  a  daughter  should?" 

"You  know  very  well,  dad,  that  I'd  live 
with  you  in  a  minute  if  it  was  n't  for  those 
friends  of  yours.  How  could  I  stay  in  the 
cabin  with  them  coming  there  and  drinking 
and  singing?" 

"Mighty  fine  you  are!"  the  man  snarled. 
"Well,  I  don't  like  your  friends  any  better 
than  you  like  mine;  so  you  leave  me  alone 
and  I'll  do  the  same  by  you  —  no  thanks 
either  way." 

The  man's  steps  crunched  along  the 
gravelly  walk,  and  he  was  gone ;  but  the  girl 
remained.  Rue  and  her  sister  heard  her 
rustling  among  the  leaves,  and  then,  before 
they  realized  it,  she  was  looking  into  their 
embarrassed  eyes. 

43 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"Oh,  we're  so  sorry!"  Rue  said,  leaning 
forward.  "We  could  n't  go,  could  we?" 

Patricia  Quincannon  had  tears  in  her  eyes, 
and  quite  frankly  she  wiped  them  away. 

"No,"  she  said,  "you  could  n't  go.  It's 
all  right  anyway.  You'd  have  found  out 
soon.  Now  you  know  what  any  one  in  town 
would  have  told  you  five  minutes  after  you 
began  to  speak  of  me." 

"Get  into  the  boat  with  us,  won't  you?" 
said  Rue.  "There's  plenty  of  room." 

Her  gray  eyes,  quiet  and  understanding, 
met  the  hot  and  unhappy  eyes  of  the  girl  on 
the  bank.  There  was  a  moment's  pause. 

"Yes,"  Patricia  answered  at  last.  "I'll  be 
glad  to  get  in." 

Fora  moment  they  were  silent,  not  know- 
ing exactly  what  to  say.  Then  Patricia 
spoke  abruptly,  "Have  you  found  a  house?" 

They  told  her  of  the  cottage  that  they 
coveted,  and  she  related  stories  of  the  much- 
loved  little  woman  who  had  long  lived  in  it. 
Then  they  talked  of  other  things,  and  the 
morning  slipped  away.  When  they  parted  it 
44 


PORTRAITS 

was  with  a  feeling  that  they  had  formed  a 
fast  friendship. 

The  following  morning  the  letter  came  from 
Chicago.  The  Curtis  brothers  wrote :  — 

We  shall  be  honored  to  have  you  occupy  our 
aunt's  cottage  on  the  terms  you  suggest,  and 
hope  you  will  not  be  discouraged  by  the  state 
in  which  you  will  find  things.  We  return  your 
picture,  as  you  request.  Thank  you  very  much. 
It  was,  to  say  the  least,  reassuring.  If  you  wish 
to  see  portraits  of  us,  you  will  find  them  hanging 
on  the  south  wall  of  Aunt  Amrah's  sitting-room. 
Yours  sincerely, 

GORDON  AND  WYLIE  CURTIS. 

"What  fun!"  Annie  Dee  said.  "They  took 
it  all  just  as  we  wanted  them  to,  did  n't 
they?  What  a  relief  to  find  some  one  who 
is  n't  terribly  serious !  Now,  mother,  you 
must  come  and  see  the  house." 

The  Wardells  certainly  were  not  very  seri- 
ous as  they  made  their  way  to  Miss  RysdaeFs 
cottage,  armed  with  telegram  and  letter  to 
convince  her  of  their  right  to  the  key. 
•  "To  my  mind  you  need  a  scythe  as  much 
as  a  key,"  Miss  Rysdael  said  discouragingly. 
45 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"I  don't  see  how  you're  ever  going  to  get 
through  that  tangle  to  the  door." 

"Oh,  we'll  manage  very  well,  thank  you !" 
Rue  returned  valiantly.  "We've  old  boots 
and  old  gloves  and  are  ready  for  a  conflict." 

"You  must  expect  to  find  mice  in  the 
house,  and  maybe  bats,"  Miss  Rysdael  con- 
tinued. "  Father  said  he  was  n't  sure  but 
snakes  had  got  in,  too." 

To  her  surprise  the  Wardells  did  not  falter. 

"Wish  us  luck!"  cried  Annie  Dee.  And, 
laughing  at  her  oddly  resentful  neighbor,  she 
led  the  attack  on  the  little  house. 

Only  when  they  had  flung  wide  every  door 
and  shutter  did  the  Wardells  pause  to  see 
what  manner  of  house  Miss  Amrah  Curtis 
had  left  to  record  her  personality.  Then, 
with  many  exclamations  of  delight,  they 
went  from  room  to  room.  True,  dust  covered 
everything;  but  the  low,  comfortable  rooms, 
the  simple  furnishings,  the  friendly  fire- 
places, and  the  tasteful  dishes  filled  them 
with  joy. 

"That  little  red  rocker  must  have  been 
46 


PORTRAITS 

Miss  Amrah's  favorite,"  Rue  declared.  "  See 
how  well  placed  it  is  here  by  the  window! 
That  must  be  your  own  particular  place, 
mother  dear.  And  oh,  Annie  Dee,  there's 
that  picture  of  the  Curtis  boys,  as  Miss 
Rysdael  calls  them!" 

They  gathered  about  the  picture,  which 
hung  on  the  south  wall.  It  showed  two 
sturdy  small  boys  —  six  and  eight  years  of 
age,  perhaps  —  in  Highland  costume.  From 
their  place  on  the  wall  they  smiled  shyly  at 
their  tenants. 

"What  funny  little  kiddies!"  said  Rue. 
"But  they're  nice,  are  n't  they,  mother?" 

"As  nice  as  everything  else  that  belongs  to 
Miss  Amrah.  I  like  her  house,  her  nephews, 
and  her  atmosphere.  I  hope  she's  pleased  to 
have  us  here." 

Rue  and  Annie  Dee  put  on  the  old  frocks 
that  they  had  brought  to  work  in,  while  Mrs. 
Wardell  went  to  the  village  to  purchase 
"ammunition  and  implements  of  war,"  as 
she  said,  in  the  way  of  brooms,  brushes,  pails, 
soap,  and  cleaning  materials. 
47 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"There  are  only  two  bedrooms,"  observed 
Rue,  "  and  of  course  mother  must  have  one 
and  Bobbie  the  other." 

"And  we'll  sleep  in  the  trees,  I  suppose/' 
said  Annie  Dee,  laughing. 

"No,  not  quite;  but  we'll  take  this  little 
summer  kitchen  and  make  the  loveliest  dress- 
ing-room out  of  it  you  ever  saw.  Then  we'll 
screen  in  the  little  porch  that  opens  off  it  and 
put  two  cots  out  there.  What  could  be 
finer?" 

"Nothing,"  agreed  Annie  Dee. 

Mrs.  Wardell  was  not  one  of  those  persons 
who  think  it  economical  to  stretch  out  a  piece 
of  work  that  can  be  done  quickly.  So,  leaving 
the  house  to  her  girls  and  making  the  yard 
her  particular  business,  she  enlisted  that 
afternoon  the  services  of  two  men,  two 
horses,  a  plough,  and  various  other  imple- 
ments. Then,  by  a  happy  accident,  she  ran 
across  one  of  those  men  who  can  turn  their 
hand  to  all  trades.  She  engaged  him  to 
repair  the  fence  and  paint  it,  to  paint  the 
house,  to  replace  rusted  hinges  with  new 
48 


PORTRAITS 

ones,  to  mend  the  pump,  and  to  see  to  the 
drains. 

The  next  few  days  flew  by  like  magic,  for 
there  is  nothing  more  absorbing  to  home- 
lovers  than  the  making  of  a  home.  It  was 
delightful  to  watch  the  little  place  emerge 
from  its  sorry  state.  While  the  "help"  that 
they  had  hired  polished  floors  and  furniture, 
cleaned  walls  and  windows,  beat  rugs  and 
mattresses,  the  girls  brightened  andirons  and 
candlesticks,  washed  china  and  glassware, 
sewed  new  curtains  and  cushion  covers,  and 
arranged  their  own  personal  possessions  in 
the  rooms.  At  last  the  renovation  was  com- 
plete; two  regal  hibiscus  plants  were  set  to 
guard  the  front  steps,  the  yard  was  seeded, 
the  shrubbery  trimmed,  the  house  and  fence 
were  painted  a  quiet  gray  and  the  shutters 
a  cool  green. 

"Are  n't  you  ready  now  to  meet  your 
neighbors?"  said  Patricia  one  day,  looking 
with  appreciative  eyes  at  the  dainty  living- 
room.  "There 's  to  be  a  garden  party  at  Mrs. 
Thwait's  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  library 
49 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

that  she  started.  Every  one  wants  to  meet 
you,  of  course,  and  this  will  be  a  fine  time 
for  it." 

"Well,  we're  ready  to  be  looked  over," 
the  Wardells  declared. 

"  Confidentially,"  said  Patricia, "  this  party 
was  my  idea,  but  it  would  n't  do  to  have  peo- 
ple realize  that  it  was  in  any  sense  mine,  for 
I'm  out  of  favor  with  at  least  half  of  my 
neighbors  on  account  of  the  part  I  Ve  played 
in  getting  a  new  principal  for  the  school." 

As  Patricia  had  suspected,  the  Wardells 
were  feeling  the  need  of  sociability.  So  it 
was  with  no  small  sense  of  anticipation  that 
they  made  their  appearance  the  night  of  the 
party  on  the  lantern-lighted  lawn  that  sur- 
rounded Mrs.  Thwait's  gracious  old  house. 

Mrs.  Thwait,  to  whom  Patricia  had  pre- 
sented the  Wardells,  was  eager  to  make  them 
acquainted  with  her  friends,  and,  as  far  as 
her  duties  as  hostess  allowed,  she  did  so ;  but 
in  the  dim  light,  and  with  the  constraint  of 
newness  hanging  over  them,  the  Wardells 
received  only  vague  impressions.  A  few  of 
So 


PORTRAITS 

the  people  ventured  upon  words  of  welcome 
and  spoke  of  calling  on  them,  but  more  held 
out  lifeless  hands  and  uttered  vague  and  chilly 
nothings. 

The  Wardells  could  not  fail  to  observe 
that  there  were  two  camps  at  Mrs.  Thwait's, 
and  that,  although  all  were  gathered  to- 
gether for  an  admirable  purpose,  the  two 
factions  nevertheless  drew  away  from  each 
other. 

"I  see,"  said  Patricia,  "that  you  are  ob- 
serving the  dark  and  suspicious  glances 
hurled  by  one  group  of  our  townspeople  at 
the  other  group,  and  I  think  you  know  the 
cause  of  them.  By  the  way,  Miss  Torrey,  the 
proposed  incumbent,  will  be  here  to-night. 
She  arrives  on  the  eight-o'clock  train,  and  the 
president  of  the  School  Board  is  going  to 
bring  her  here." 

"Is  n't  that  pretty  hard  on  Miss  Torrey?" 
asked  Robert,  smiling. 

"  I  Ve  thought  of  that,"  Patricia  admitted  ; 
"but  I  don't  think  she  '11  realize  that  she's 
a  storm  center  —  not  to-night  at  any  rate." 
Si 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

And  apparently  Miss  Torrey  did  not  real- 
ize it.  She  seemed  a  good-natured,  capable 
woman,  and  she  went  her  cordial  way  among 
the  people,  taking  no  notice  of  the  chilly  re- 
ception that  some  gave  her.  She  had  the  man- 
ner of  a  person  who  comes  with  a  message  of 
value,  and  she  apparently  left  it  to  others 
to  decide  whether  they  would  accept  it  or 
not. 

As  Rue  was  sitting  among  the  trees  with 
her  mother  and  two  other  ladies,  she  noticed 
a  movement  in  the  shrubbery  and  had  a 
glimpse  of  a  tall,  thin,  white-clad  figure  that 
looked  familiar;  it  was  Lena  Rysdael.  Some- 
thing about  the  shadowy  form  indicated 
distress  —  a  droop,  a  gesture  —  Rue  could 
not  have  told  what.  With  a  word  to  her 
mother,  she  slipped  back  into  the  shadows. 

"Miss  Rysdael,  is  it  you?"  she  called 
softly.  " It's  only  Miss  Wardell.  I  thought 
something  might  be  the  matter." 

There  was  a  pause,  and  then  a  broken 
voice  replied:  — 

"I'm  not  feeling  well,  Miss  Wardell.  I'd 
52 


PORTRAITS 

like  to  go  home,  but  I  don't  want  to  go  out 
the  front  gate.'* 

Rue  glanced  toward  the  gate,  where  red 
Japanese  lanterns  showed  a  crowd  of  young 
people  gathered  there. 

"There  must  be  a  rear  gate,  of  course," 
Rue  said.  "  I  'm  tired,  too,  Miss  Rysdael.  If 
you  will  wait  a  moment,  I  '11  tell  mother  and 
then  walk  home  with  you," 

A  moment  later  the  two  girls  had  slipped 
into  the  road  and  were  alone.  It  did  not  need 
the  smothered  sob  to  tell  Rue  that  Lena 
Rysdael  was  suffering,  but  as  they  walked 
along  she  offered  no  consolation  in  words. 
She  merely  held  her  companion's  arm  within 
her  own. 

"My  poor  father  can't  stand  up  against 
that  woman,  can  he?"  said  Miss  Rysdael, 
when  they  had  turned  into  their  home  lane. 
"Oh,  I  kept  seeing  him,  so  gruff  and  untidy 
beside  her!  Poor  dad,  new  clothes  look  as 
bad  as  old  ones  on  him,  and  he  won't  smile 
when  he  is  n't  amused,  to  please  any  one. 
They  judge  him  by  his  oddity  and  forget  all 
53 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

he  knows.  He's  taught  in  this  school  for  half 
a  long  lifetime,  and  now  they're  going  to 
throw  him  out  in  his  old  age!" 

They  had  reached  the  Rysdael  house,  and 
once  within  it  Esau  Rysdael's  daughter 
broke  down  and  wept. 

"I  ought  never  to  have  gone  to  that 
place,"  she  sobbed.  "But  I  was  lonely,  and 
when  I  saw  you  all  going  in  your  white  frocks, 
I  said  I  'd  go  too.  Oh,  I  wish  father  had  n't 
gone  away!  He  ought  to  have  stayed  right 
here  and  fought  the  thing  through.  But  he 's 
so  nervous,  and  he  does  n't  sleep  well  — " 

"Don't  feel  so  badly,"  broke  in  Rue. 
"Everything  will  come  out  all  right." 

"I  don't  see  how  you  can  be  so  sure,"  said 
Miss  Rysdael  rather  sharply.  "I  don't  be- 
lieve you  understand  the  situation  very  well, 
Miss  Wardell.  It's  a  case  where  you've  got 
to  come  out  in  the  open  and  say  which  side 
you  sympathize  with.  I  noticed  Miss  Quin- 
cannon  at  your  house  the  other  day — " 

"Our  first  caller,"  said  Rue.  "Isn't  she 
lovely?" 

54 


PORTRAITS 

"She  may  be  lovely,  but  it  comes  to  this, 
that  you  can't  be  my  friend  and  hers,  too. 
She,  at  her  age,  to  be  setting  herself  up  to 
teach  my  father !  It 's  good  of  you  to  come 
home  with  me,  and  I  thank  you ;  but  I  must 
tell  you  that  I  can't  compromise  with  father's 
enemies,  no  matter"  —  her  voice  broke  a 
little  —  "no  matter  how  much  I  may  be  in- 
clined to  like  them." 

"I  like  you,  Miss  Rysdael,"  said  Rue  with 
spirit,  "and  you  can't  possibly  prevent  me. 
I  like  Patricia,  too,  and  I'm  going  to  keep 
right  on  liking  her.  This  whole  dispute  is  on 
the  merits  of  systems  of  education,  and  I 
hope  the  best  side  will  win." 

"And  you  think  the  best  side  is  Miss 
Quincannon's  side?" 

Rue  did  not  try  to  evade  the  question ;  she 
would  be  kind,  but  she  must  be  honest,  too. 

"  From  what  I  have  heard  I  do  think  so," 
she  said  gently.  "  But  what  does  that  mat- 
ter?" 

"Nothing  could  matter  more,"  declared 
Lena  Rysdael,  rising.  "I  want  you  to  go, 
55 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

Miss  Wardell.  I  don't  like  to  be  rude,  but 
you'll  have  to  understand  what  this  means 
to  us.  If  father  loses  in  this  fight,  there  are 
hundreds  of  people  who  will  be  glad  of  it  to 
the  end  of  their  days.  No,  don't  say  another 
word.  I  want  to  live  by  myself,  and  I  don't 
want  you  intruding  with  a  lot  of  silly  cheer- 
fulness that  can't  mean  a  thing  to  me  —  not 
a  thing!"  Then  she  gently  pushed  Rue  from 
the  house. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MYSTERIES 

AT  the  close  of  the  fifth  week  of  the  War- 
dells'  stay  in  Dalroy,  the  court  set  aside  the 
injunction  against  the  building  of  the  Har- 
mon dam.  John  Harmon  was  at  once  gal- 
vanized into  intense  life;  not  content  with 
putting  up  his  dam,  he  resolved  to  build  his 
furniture  factory  at  the  same  time.  Before 
the  little  town,  drowsing  in  its  midsummer 
heat,  realized  what  he  proposed  to  do,  a 
hundred  workmen  were  on  the  scene. 

Robert,  who  had  for  four  consecutive  sum- 
mers worked  on  reinforced  concrete  in  one 
form  or  another,  felt  able  to  cope  with  the 
construction  of  the  dam,  but  the  chief  re- 
sponsibility of  the  undertaking  was  not  his. 
Mr.  Arthur  Vaille,  who  had  employed  Robert 
during  his  vacations  and  who  had  recom- 
mended him  to  Mr.  Harmon,  was  to  come 
down  from  Chicago  three  times  a  week  to 
oversee  the  work. 

57 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

The  conversation  at  the  Wardells'  cottage 
turned  chiefly  on  such  subjects  as  winter 
contraction  of  concrete,  the  rapidity  of  the 
flow  of  the  Rock  River,  the  length  of  the  sea- 
son, and,  by  way  of  a  diversion,  the  con- 
tinued animosity  of  Captain  Quincannon. 

"He's  drinking  heavily/'  Harmon  told  the 
Wardells  as  they  sat  at  Sunday-night  sup- 
per together,  "and  he  and  his  cronies  are 
putting  their  heads  together  a  great  deal 
nowadays.  Miss  Quincannon  has  been  doing 
her  best  to  get  her  father  to  take  a  vaca- 
tion. That's  the  way  she  is  pleased  to  put  it. 
She's  been  telling  him  that  he  ought  to  visit 
his  brother  out  in  Washington,  and  she's 
offered  to  pay  his  way  if  he  '11  go ;  but  the 
captain  is  as  hot  as  a  hornet  over  the  deci- 
sion of  the  court,  and  he  intends  to  stay  right 
here  and  make  things  disagreeable  for  me." 

"That  explains  why  Patricia  gave  up  go- 
ing to  Cedar  Lake,"  said  Rue.  "She  could 
n't  afford  to  go  and  send  her  father  West, 
too." 

"I  hear  Miss  Quincannon  has  carried  her 
58 


MYSTERIES 

point  with  the  Board  of  Education,"  Har- 
mon remarked.  "They  met  last  evening  and 
decided  to  put  Miss  Torrey  in  Rysdael's 
place." 

"Mr.  Rysdael  is  home,"  Robert  remarked. 
"I  saw  him  sitting  in  his  yard  this  morning 
playing  with  the  squirrels.  What  a  strange- 
looking  man  he  is,  with  his  huge,  hang-dog 
head  and  his  tumbled  hair!  He  looks  like  a 
genius  —  or  at  least  the  way  a  genius  is  sup- 
posed to  look." 

"There's  Miss  Rysdael  walking  up  and 
down  among  the  trees,"  said  Mr.  Harmon 
peering  through  the  window  with  interest. 

"Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell,  "she  walks  like 
that  at  twilight  every  day.  We  admire  her 
very  much,  though  she  does  n't  even  look 
our  way  since  she  found  out  how  we  stand 
on  the  school  question ;  but  we  love  to  watch 
her  feeding  her  birds  and  squirrels." 

"Oh,  Mr.  Harmon!"  broke  in  Annie  Dee. 
"Did  you  know  I  was  going  into  the  poetry 
business?" 

"I  did  n't  know  it,  Miss  Annie." 
59 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"Next  week  I  begin  to  advertise." 
"How?  Where?  Do  poets  advertise?" 
"Lord  Byron  never  did  and  Tennyson 
seldom,  but  they  had  certain  advantages 
over  me  —  other  ways  of  making  themselves 
known.  As  for  me,  I  shall  become  celebrated 
by  advertising.  You  see,  I  mean  to  write 
what  are  called  *  occasional  poems/  Suppose 
your  grandmother  is  about  to  have  her 
seventy-fifth  birthday  and  that  none  of  the 
family  is  poetical.  Then  apply  to  me!  I  will 
write  a  poem  for  grandmother  that  will  melt 
her  heart.  Or  suppose  that  you  are  going 
to  celebrate  your  golden  wedding  and  want 
verses  about  it.  Or  imagine  that  you  are 
asked  to  welcome  a  distinguished  English 
poet  and  are  expected  to  do  so  in  rhyme  — " 
"You  ask  too  much,"  said  the  Wardells' 
guest.  "I  can't  imagine  such  a  thing's  hap- 
pening to  me." 

"Then,  to  bring  my  talents  within  the 
realm  of  your  needs,  Mr.  Harmon,  suppose 
you  made  a  nice  little  rocker  in  your  fac- 
tory and  wished  to  advertise  it  in  an  unus- 
60 


MYSTERIES 

ual  manner.  Then  I  could  write  you  verses 
about  Priscilla  Alden  and  her  sewing-chair 
—  do  you  see  ? " 

"Now  that  you  have,  as  you  insinuate,  at 
last  brought  your  ideas  down  to  my  level,  I 
certainly  see.  What  is  more,  and  I'm  quite 
in  earnest  in  saying  it,  I  engage  you  to  write 
some  of  those  advertisements/' 

"My  first  job!"  cried  Annie  Dee. 

"Have  you  no  chosen  career,  Miss  War- 
dell?"  John  Harmon  asked  of  Rue. 

"I  Ve  had  just  a  touch  too  much  career," 
Rue  said,  laughing.  "I'm  still  lazy  and 
fussy  from  an  overdose  of  school-teaching.  If 
it  had  been  the  real  thing  I  probably  should 
n't  have  been  worn  out ;  but  fooling  away  my 
time  with  a  company  of  over-indulged  girls, 
who  did  n't  wish  to  learn,  got  on  my  nerves. 
I'm  corresponding  with  a  teachers'  bureau 
now  in  the  hope  of  getting  a  position  with 
a  real  school.  Meanwhile  I  'm  keeping  up  a 
University  Extension  Course  in  pedagogy 
and  helping  mother  put  up  preserves." 

"Two  crates  of  strawberries,  the  last  of  the 
61 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

season,  are  coming  early  to-morrow  morn- 
ing," announced  Mrs.  Wardell.  "  Everything 
will  have  to  give  way  before  them,  too, — po- 
etry, pedagogy,  perhaps  even  engineerng." 

"  I  used  to  pick  over  berries  for  my  mother 
once  upon  a  time,"  John  Harmon  said.  "  She 
and  I  lived  together  in  this  little  town  for 
years ;  then  she  sent  me  away  to  get  my  edu- 
cation, and  she  lived  here  alone.  It  was  only 
after  she  had  gone  and  I  read  the  record  she 
left  of  those  lonely  years  that  I  understood 
what  she  had  been  through.  I  believe  it  was 
partly  for  her  sake  —  though  I  could  n't  ex- 
plain what  I  mean  —  that  made  me  decide 
to  open  up  my  business  here.  I  had  a  notion 
she'd  like  me  to  come  to  Dalroy,  though 
personally  I  regard  it  as  a  mean  little  town." 

"Mean  and  not  mean,  low  and  fine,  bore- 
some  and  delightful,  like  all  other  places  in- 
habited by  human  beings,"  said  Mrs.  War- 
dell,  as  they  rose  from  the  table. 

The  following  morning  was  known  there- 
after in  the  annals  of  the  Wardell  family  as 
"The  Morning  of  the  Hidden  Hand." 
62 


MYSTERIES 

The  occasion  was  an  incident  that  had  to 
do  with  the  strawberry  preserves  and  was  as 
follows :  — 

Part  of  the  preserves  were  in  the  kettle 
over  the  fire,  when  Patricia  Quincannon 
called. 

"I  shan't  stay,"  she  said,  when  she  saw 
how  actively  engaged  the  family  were.  "I 
merely  yielded  to  an  impulse  to  run  over  and 
see  you.  No,  —  there 's  no  use  in  urging  me, 

—  I  'm  off.    News  ?   Oh,  there  is  n't  much 
news !  The  Board  has  accepted  Miss  Torrey 

—  you  heard  that?    She's  to  live  at  Mrs. 
Thwait's,  and  that  makes  me  quite  happy. 
I'm  a  restless  creature,  and  it  will  do  me 
good  to  have  some  one  as  stimulating  as  Miss 
Torrey  round.  I  saw  poor  Lena  Rysdael  over 
the  fence  just  now,  and  she  dropped  her  eyes 
as  if  I  were  the  elephant-faced  man.  Who's 
he  ?  Oh,  he  used  to  live  in  town !  Poor  dear, 
he  wore  a  mask  till  the  day  of  his  death. 
That 's  one  of  Dalroy's  stories.   Some  day  I 
shall  relate  to  you  the  Thousand  and  One 
Dalroy  Nights.   They're  much  more  inter- 

63 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

esting  than  the  Arabian  ones.  Queer  things 
have  happened  here.  Well,  I  must  be  going. 
Good-bye  —  I  '11  be  over  again  soon." 

"  But  I  Ve  ever  so  many  things  I  want  to 
tell  you  right  now,"  Rue  protested ;  and  she 
followed  her  guest  down  the  lane.  Of  course 
Annie  Dee  tagged  along,  too. 

Just  about  that  time  a  man  came  to  the 
door  with  an  ice-cream  freezer,  in  which  he 
wished  to  interest  the  lady  of  the  house.  He 
came,  moreover,  to  the  front  door,  and  it  was 
there  that  Mrs.  Wardell  talked  with  him. 
She  did  not  buy  the  freezer,  but  she  saw  an 
acquaintance  who  had  been  ill  driving  by, 
and  she  ran  out  to  inquire  after  her  health. 

That  was  how  the  strawberry  jam  hap- 
pened to  burn.  The  wind,  however,  was  not 
in  the  right  direction  to  convey  the  dire 
news  of  the  culinary  tragedy  to  Mrs.  Wardell, 
who  stood  in  amiable  conversation  with  her 
friend.  The  wind  was  southwest  by  west,  and 
so  the  birds  and  squirrels  in  the  Rysdael 
grove  were  presumably  the  only  creatures 
aware  of  the  fact  that  several  dollars'  worth 
64 


MYSTERIES 

of  fine  berries  and  excellently  refined  sugar 
were  scorching. 

Then,  suddenly,  that  little  monitor  that 
dwells  in  the  breasts  of  cooks  caused  Mrs. 
Wardell  to  cry,  "Oh,  mercy,  my  jam!"  and 
to  fly  from  the  side  of  her  friend. 

As  Mrs.  Wardell  entered  the  living-room 
the  accusing  odors  greeted  her  nostrils,  and 
she  hurried  into  the  kitchen.  The  sight  she 
saw  was  certainly  bewildering.  The  kettle  of 
preserves  had  been  lifted  from  the  stove,  the 
contents  poured  from  the  slightly  scorched 
caldron  into  porcelain  pans  and  set  upon  the 
kitchen  table,  and  all  was  well.  The  jam  was 
saved. 

But  by  whom  ?  That  was  what  Mrs.  War- 
dell excitedly  asked  her  daughters  when  they 
returned. 

"Some  one  came  into  the  kitchen,  lifted 
that  great  kettle  from  the  fire,  poured  the 
fruit  into  those  pans,  and  filled  the  kettle 
with  fresh  water.  Now,  who  in  the  world  — " 

Her  eyes  wandered  to  the  only  house  near 
at  hand,  —  the  house  occupied  by  Lena 
65 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

Rysdael,  who  would  not  speak  to  them,  — 
and  her  words  died.  Rue  laughed  —  with  a 
little  choke  at  the  end  of  the  laugh.  Annie 
Dee  said :  — 

"That's  what  I  call  clean  sport." 

But  no  one  gave  words  to  the  thought  in 
their  minds.  They  agreed  to  call  it  "The 
Morning  of  the  Hidden  Hand,"  and  to  let  it 
go  at  that. 

Robert  was  in  Chicago  for  a  week  on  busi- 
ness connected  with  the  building  of  the  dam. 
The  girls  had  made  him  take  with  him  some 
photographs  of  the  house  to  show  the  Curtis 
brothers. 

"Show  them  the  befores  and  afters,"  said 
Annie  Dee.  "I  do  so  want  them  to  pass 
judgment  on  what  we've  done  with  Aunt 
Amrah's  things.  You  must  tell  them  that  all 
her  old  friends  approve,  which  is  interesting, 
considering  that  they  came  for  the  purpose 
of  disapproving." 

During  Robert's  absence  the  household 
had  begun  to  suffer  from  that  peculiar  aim- 
lessness  that  invariably  creeps  into  a  house 
66 


MYSTERIES 

when  there  is  no  man  beneath  the  roof.  There 
was  a  general  loss  of  interest  in  meals,  a  fall- 
ing-off  of  promptness,  and  a  decrease  of 
pleasure  in  the  afternoon  toilets.  To  be  sure, 
there  were  callers  in  plenty,  for  Dalroy  was 
feeling  more  sociably  inclined  toward  the 
Wardells  than  at  first. 

Some  of  the  callers  were  particularly  lo- 
quacious. Miss  Nancy  Ferris,  for  example, 
who,  having  called  once,  seemed  speedily  to 
acquire  the  habit,  was  the  self-elected  his- 
torian of  the  place.  The  only  trouble  with  her 
history  was  that  it  made  a  specialty  of  what 
may  be  termed  the  dark  features.  For  ex- 
ample, it  did  not  occur  to  her  to  mention  that 
the  Sessions  had  been  judges,  clergymen,  and 
professors;  but  she  was  very  specific  about 
the  insanity  that  had  broken  out  in  the 
family  here  and  there.  She  told  at  great 
length  how  Delia  Sessions's  mother,  for  no 
imaginable  reason,  had  stolen  all  manner  of 
things  and  had  hidden  them  away  like  a 
naughty  child. 

"She  ran  to  teaspoons  more  than  to  any- 
67 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

thing  else,"  said  Miss  Ferris.  "Just  imagine 
the  feelings  of  a  hostess  who  found  on  the  de- 
parture of  her  guests  that  from  one  to  six  of 
her  best  teaspoons  were  missing!  It  went  on 
for  months  and  years.  Why,  it  was  the  great- 
est mystery  we  ever  had  in  Dalroy!  Of 
course,  after  it  was  cleared  up,  Mrs.  Sessions 
was  put  in  the  charge  of  a  caretaker  and  not 
allowed  to  go  out.  She  was  such  a  social  per- 
son, too!'* 

"You  don't  mean  to  say,"  cried  Rue, 
"that  Mrs.  Sessions's  neighbors  realized 
that  she  was  really  suffering  from  a  mental 
illness,  and  yet  would  n't  do  anything  to 
make  her  happy  — would  n't  ask  her  out  or 
go  to  see  her?  I  should  have  thought  they'd 
have  made  her  a  present  of  all  the  teaspoons 
in  the  neighborhood  if  that  would  have  com- 
forted her  any." 

"Oh,  she  didn't  want  the  spoons!  She 
wanted  the  fun  of  stealing  them.  It  would 
n't  do  to  indulge  a  tendency  like  that.  It 
would  be  bad  for  the  patient  in  the  first 
place,  and  it  might  encourage  such  a  tend- 
68 


MYSTERIES 

ency  in  others.  What  I  wished  to  speak  about, 
however,  was  the  daughter,  Delia  Sessions. 
She's  a  good-enough  girl  so  far  as  any  one 
knows,  but  she's  the  living  image  of  her 
mother." 

"Her  mother  must  have  been  pretty," 
said  Annie  Dee.  "I  think  Delia  is  lovely." 

"Oh,  she's  pretty  enough,  if  you  come  to 
that!"  admitted  Miss  Ferris.  "But  old  resi- 
dents are  inclined  to  ask,  'Will  she  walk  in 
her  mother's  footsteps  ?  Will  the  resemblance 
carry  further  than  feature  and  form?" 

"  I  suppose  the  old  residents  ask  that  every 
time  they  see  the  poor  thing,"  Rue  could  not 
help  saying.  "Did  you  say  you  knew  her, 
sister  ?  Why  not  have  her  up  to  the  house,  if 
she'll  come?  We  have  dozens  of  teaspoons, 
so  she'll  have  difficulty  in  depriving  us 
utterly." 

Miss  Ferris  looked  at  Rue  with  a  grieved 
expression. 

"My  dear  young  lady,"  she  said,  "I  think 
you  mean  to  be  rude  to  me,  but  I  have  no  in- 
tention of  feeling  offended.  I  have  lived  much 
69 


THE   NEWCOMERS 

longer  than  you  and  I  know  that  the  world 
is  not  the  nice  place  you  think  it.  It  is  inter- 
esting —  but  not  nice." 

With  that  she  quite  deliberately  turned 
her  back  on  the  sisters  and  devoted  herself  to 
Mrs.  Wardell. 

"You  were  rude,  my  dear,"  Mrs.  Wardell 
said  to  Rue  when  their  guest  had  gone.  "I 
never  heard  you  speak  like  that  before  in  my 
life." 

"Why  could  n't  the  old  cat  keep  her  claws 
in,  then?"  Rue  protested,  with  the  tears 
starting  to  her  eyes  at  her  mother's  rebuke. 

"I  think  I  understand  Miss  Ferris  better 
than  you  do,"  Mrs.  Wardell  said  gently. 
"  She  has  n't  had  enough  in  her  life  to  occupy 
her  talents.  She  has  had  to  take  her  excite- 
ment by  watching  others.  She 's  really  a  gen- 
tlewoman ;  you  can  tell  that  by  her  voice  and 
her  gestures  and  her  modest  way  of  dressing. 
The  trouble  is,  she  has  n't  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  exercise  her  social  gifts." 

"Social  gifts!"  groaned  Rue  and  Annie 
Dee  in  unison.  But  their  mother  paid  no 
70 


MYSTERIES 

attention  to  them.  "Have  you  noticed  how 
much  she  enjoys  the  little  ceremony  of  after- 
noon tea  ?  If  she  had  lived  in  a  place  where 
entertaining  was  the  custom  and  where  there 
was  some  chance  of  conversing  about  inter- 
esting things,  how  different  she  would  have 
been !  She  loves  to  come  here  just  as  she  loves 
to  visit  Mrs.  Thwait,  because  she  is  properly 
received.  If  you  had  a  man  come  to  your 
door  who  had  been  eating  boot-straps  and 
old  gloves  up  in  the  Arctic  regions,  think  what 
a  meal  you  'd  set  out  for  him !  Well,  here 's  a 
woman  who  has  had  only  old  gloves  and  boot- 
straps in  a  mental  way,  and  I  mean  to  serve 
her  some  pleasantly  seasoned  and  wholesome 
dishes.  That's  going  to  be  my  own  private, 
especial  undertaking.  You  girls  are  full  of 
plans,  and  Robert  has  his  time  all  laid  out 
for  him;  but  as  for  me,  I'm  slipping  into 
the  'gray-and-content-before-the-fire'  stage. 
Only  it's  likely  to  be  discontent  and  gray- 
ness  with  me  if  I  don't  have  something  to 
do." 
Rue,  looking  up  half  shyly  at  the  mother 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

who  so  seldom  unburdened  her  heart,  saw  her 
lips  quivering. 

"You,  mother!"  she  said  reproachfully. 
"Why,  you're  the  most  useful  person  I 
know!  Whatever  should  we  do  without 
you?" 

"You'll  be  doing  without  me  in  a  very 
little  while,"  Mrs.  Wardell  replied,  trying  to 
hold  her  voice  steady.  "That  will  be  quite 
right,  and  just  the  way  I  really  want  it 
to  be ;  but  I  shall  be  left  desperately  lonely 
if—" 

"If  what?" 

"If  I  have  n't  my  own  game  to  play." 

"You  mean,  don't  you,"  said  Rue,  "that 
you  'd  like  to  stay  in  this  mean  little  town,  as 
Mr.  Harmon  calls  it,  and  try  to  help  it?" 

"Would  n't  that  be  worth  doing?  I  don't 
want  to  go  backward;  when  my  day  comes 
for  passing  on  into  the  other  life,  I  should 
not  wish  to  go  to  your  father  less  of  a  woman 
than  he  left  me.  I  'd  like  to  surprise  him.  Do 
you  understand?  I'd  like  to  be  something 
more  than  he  ever  dreamed  I  was  —  and  he 
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MYSTERIES 

always  gave  me  credit  for  much  more  than  I 
deserved." 

"Oh,  mother,"  murmured  Annie  Dee, 
throwing  her  impulsive  arms  about  her 
mother's  neck,  "shall  we  ever  be  like  you — 
ever  be  in  the  least  like  you  ? " 

Rue  turned  away  and  walked  into  the 
kitchen.  They  heard  her  working  there 
among  the  cooking-things,  and  after  a  while 
Annie  Dee  went  out  to  see  what  was  hap- 
pening. 

"Oh,  coffee  gelatin  pudding!"  she  ex- 
claimed. "How  nice!  For  supper,  sister?" 

"Not  for  us,"  said  Rue  shortly,  without 
looking  round.  "For  Miss  Ferris." 


CHAPTER  V 

BENEVOLENT  INTRUDERS 

WRAPPED  up  in  the  responsibilities  of  his 
undertaking,  Robert  Wardell  came  back  from 
Chicago.  He  thought  of  nothing  and  talked 
of  nothing  except  the  dam.  He  worked  even- 
ings, and  he  was  off  early  in  the  morning;  he 
carried  his  luncheon  with  him  chiefly  that  he 
might  sit  on  the  river  bank  at  noon  and  con- 
template the  work  that  had  been  done. 

Meanwhile,  he  was  learning  the  great  art 
of  managing  men.  As  his  workmen  were 
mostly  Greeks  and  as  Robert's  knowledge  of 
Greece  was  wholly  bookish,  having  to  do  with 
the  country  and  its  inhabitants  about  500 
B.C.,  he  had  his  troubles. 

Moreover,  Dalroy  disapproved  of  the 
Greeks.  It  did  not  like  the  dark,  bright-eyed, 
foreign-speaking  little  men  who  walked  about 
the  streets  looking  at  everything  with  the 
inquisitiveness  of  children,  and  who,  when 
74 


BENEVOLENT  INTRUDERS 

they  were  off  duty,  danced  round  and  round, 
locked  in  each  other's  arms,  to  the  music  of 
an  accordion.  Why,  the  grave  people  of  Dal- 
roy  wished  to  know,  did  they  dance?  Why 
did  they  sit  in  groups  singing  curious,  wild 
songs  and  thus  disturb  the  early-retiring  in- 
habitants of  a  respectable  town? 

Patricia  Quincannon  felt  differently  about 
the  Greeks.  Once,  when  she  was  talking  with 
Robert  about  them,  she  quoted :  — 

"How  oft  beneath  far  Syrian  skies 
Have  I  looked  up  and  thought  of  home." 

"Our  skies  seem  as  alien  to  them  as  the 
Syrian  skies  to  the  Englishman,"  she  said 
sympathetically.  "  It  would  be  fine,  Robert, 
if  you  could  do  something  to  show  that  you 
did  n't  want  them  to  feel  like  strangers.  To 
think  of  them  away  from  all  their  women  and 
children!" 

It  was  Patricia's  suggestion  that  Robert 
should  take  an  occasional  meal  with  his  work- 
men, and  after  talking  the  matter  over  with 
Mr.  Harmon,  Robert  ventured  upon  the  ex- 
periment. Every  Saturday  night  he  ate  with 
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THE  NEWCOMERS 

the  Greeks,  and  always  brought  some  con- 
tribution to  the  feast. 

"I  don't  know  whether  it's  good  discipline 
or  not,"  Robert  said. 

"It 's  good  brotherhood,"  Patricia  re- 
torted. "You're  so  terribly  dignified  for  a 
young  person  that  you'll  never  let  down  the 
bars  too  much.  They'll  get  to  coming  to  you 
with  their  troubles,  and  that  will  be  perfectly 
fine." 

"Oh,  will  it,  though  ? "  said  Robert.  " I  Ve 
troubles  enough  of  my  own." 

Nevertheless,  lie  followed  Patricia's  advice 
and  with  good  results.  His  natural  hearti- 
ness and  good-fellowship  delighted  the  men. 
When  they  sang  the  songs  of  their  country, 
he  responded  with  songs  of  his  land;  he  could 
laugh  as  gayly  as  they,  and  was  as  eager  to 
learn  their  tongue  as  they  were  to  learn  his. 
They  began  to  feel  at  ease  —  like  children 
who,  having  ventured  far  from  home,  at  last 
see  a  familiar  face. 

Robert,  of  course,  reported  to  his  family 
concerning  the  impression  that  the  pictures  of 
76 


BENEVOLENT   INTRUDERS 

the  house  had  made  upon  Gordon  Curtis  and 
his  brother. 

"They  said  the  house  looked  great,"  he 
announced.  "Not  that  they  thought  it 
looked  just  as  it  had  during  their  aunt's 
time.  They  wanted  to  know  which  of  my 
sisters  was  responsible  for  the  skittish  ap- 
pearance of  the  sitting-room,  and  I  told 
them  my  younger  sister." 

"Robert  Wardell!"  protested  Annie  Dee. 
"You  know  that  the  room  looked  that  way 
from  the  first." 

A  shout  of  laughter  went  up  from  Annie 
Dee's  scornful  family. 

"Annie  Dee,"  exclaimed  her  brother,  "can 
you  look  me  in  the  eyes  and  tell  me  that  this 
coquettish  room  is  such  as  Amrah  Curtis, 
spinster,  would  have  created?  You  cannot! 
But  I'm  bound  to  say  that  her  nephews 
thought  it  interesting,  even  if  changed. 
They  are  coming  to  Dalroy  presently,  by  the 
way;  they  Ve  some  notion  of  going  into  busi- 
ness here.  At  present  they're  in  the  auto- 
mobile supply  business,  but  merely  as  a 
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THE  NEWCOMERS 

makeshift  till  Wylie  has  finished  at  the  uni- 
versity. He's  been  going  the  year  round  and 
so  has  had  no  vacation  for  three  years,  and 
his  brother  has  been  running  the  business  to 
keep  them  going  and  to  avoid  drawing  on 
their  capital.  They  may  invest  here  in  Dal- 
roy  now  that  Wylie 's  free." 

"How  soon  are  they  coming?"  asked 
Mrs.  Wardell  with  some  apprehension.  "It 
would  n't  be  very  pleasant  if  they  asked  us 
to  give  up  the  house." 

"  But  the  house  is  ours  for  a  year,  mother, 
in  return  for  the  improvements  that  we've 
put  on  it.  At  the  end  of  a  year  they'll  be 
welcome  to  it." 

"Perhaps,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell  musingly, 
"I  may  want  to  stay  here  always.  If  all  of 
you  children  go  scampering  off  down  the 
road,  as  you  presently  will,  Dalroy  will  suit 
me  much  better  than  the  city.  Mrs.  Thwait 
and  I  are  starting  a  woman's  club,  and  we're 
to  work  for  the  library.  We  even  dream  of  a 
hospital  some  day.  I  'm  laying  out  work  for 
myself  in  every  direction;  but  never  mind 
78 


BENEVOLENT   INTRUDERS 

about  that  now.  We  want  to  hear  more  about 
the  Curtis  boys,  Bob." 

"First-rate  fellows,"  said  Robert.  "A  lit- 
tle more  than  medium  height,  good  shoul- 
ders, fine  athletic  records,  good  business 
sense." 

"Just  the  same,"  said  Rue,  "I  don't  think 
I  want  them  to  come  sailing  into  our  harbor. 
I  like  them  in  the  offing,  vague  and  gray,  like 
ships  seen  through  mist.  At  close  range  they 
will  probably  be  like  any  one  else." 

A  few  days  later  Robert  announced  that 
the  Curtises  would  come  in  a  day  or  two.  At 
once  Rue  and  Annie  Dee  began  —  each  keep- 
ing the  fact  from  the  other  —  to  imagine  the 
romantic  circumstances  under  which  they 
would  meet  the  brothers;  but  the  facts 
proved  to  be  as  different  from  their  expecta- 
tions as  they  possibly  could  be. 

Mrs.  Wardell  was  spending  the  afternoon 
with  Mrs.  Thwait,  working  upon  some  de- 
tail connected  with  the  new  public  library, 
and  the  two  sisters  were  alone.  The  afternoon 
was  hot  and  the  girls  were  not  disposed  to  be 
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THE  NEWCOMERS 

very  industrious.  Annie  Dee  had  received 
two  answers  to  her  poetry  advertisement  and 
was  idly  trying  to  fill  her  orders.  One  was 
from  the  employees  of  a  box  manufacturer 
who  wished  to  present  their  head  with  a  gold 
watch  on  his  fiftieth  birthday ;  the  other  was 
from  a  Swedish  chauffeur  who  wished  to 
marry  an  Irish  cook.  Annie  Dee  decided  to 
fill  the  chauffeur's  order  first. 

"All  love-songs  are  alike,"  she  declared. 
"Rue,  couldn't  I  call  this  poem  'Irish 
Eyes'?" 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  Rue,  wishing  that 
her  sister  would  let  her  read  in  peace,  "that 
I  Ve  heard  of  something  of  that  sort  before." 

"It  would  be  original  with  me,  for  I  never 
heard  of  it.  'Irish  eyes  of  misty  blue/ 
Would  n't  that  be  a  good  first  line?" 

"It's  the  first  one  that  would  come  into 
the  head  of  any  commercial  poet  like  your- 
self." 

"Then,  how  is  'O'er  the  bogland  gayly 
tripping'?"  demanded  Annie  Dee  triumph- 
antly. 

80 


BENEVOLENT   INTRUDERS 

"That  cook  is  n't  near  a  bogland.  Did  n't 
you  say  she  lived  at  Lake  Forest  ?  There  are 
no  bogs  there  —  only  fogs." 

"Like  a  wraith  through  white  fogs  drift- 
ing,'" began  Annie  Dee;  but  it  was  too  hot 
to  go  on. 

"Fm  not  going  to  write  poetry,"  she  an- 
nounced. "I'm  going  to  wash  my  hair. 
Only  I  ought  to  have  soft  water  for  that, 
ought  n't  I  ?  And  that  miserable  cistern 
pump  is  out  of  order.  Don't  you  suppose  that 
we  could  mend  it  if  we  tried,  Rue  ?  Bobbie 
put  new  washers  on  the  old  thing,  did  n't  he  ? 
But  that  did  n't  help ;  so  the  trouble  must  be 
down  at  the  intake.  Probably  there's  some- 
thing obstructing  the  mouth  of  the  pipe." 

"Probably!"  murmured  Rue,  wondering, 
as  she  began  another  chapter  of  her  novel, 
whether  anything  in  the  world  could  keep 
Annie  Dee  quiet.  Nothing  could,  apparently, 
for  she  was  saying:  — 

"There's  a  ladder  in  the  cistern,  isn't 
there?    I've  a  mind  to  go  down  and  see 
whether  I  can  find  out  what  the  trouble  is." 
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THE  NEWCOMERS 

"But  you  might  slip!"  said  Rue  in  alarm. 
"And  even  if  you  did  n't,  you  could  n't  do 
any  good.  Now  don't  go  and  do  anything 
foolish,  Annie  Dee." 

However,  Annie  Dee  was  not  to  be  dis- 
suaded, and  presently,  clad  in  her  gymnasium 
suit,  with  rubber-soled  shoes  on  her  feet,  she 
appeared  ready  for  action.  She  threw  back 
the  cistern  top  and,  trembling  a  little,  but 
quite  eager  for  the  experience,  descended  into 
the  chill  gloom. 

"Oo-oo-oo,  what  a  froggy  place!"  she 
called  back.  "I  feel  just  like  a  mermaid." 

"I'm  going  to  hold  on  to  the  top  of  the 
ladder,"  Rue  announced. 

"Why?  It's  nailed.  But  do  lie  down  and 
look  into  the  cistern,  sister.  Is  n't  the  water 
dark?  Is  n't  it  wet?  Oo-oo-oo,  but  it's  cold! 
How  my  voice  echoes,  does  n't  it?" 

"Come  out  as  soon  as  you  can!"  Rue 
pleaded.  "You  can  see  for  yourself  that  you 
don't  know  what  to  do.  The  cistern  man 
may  come  to-morrow.  I  don't  like  to  have 
you  down  there." 

82 


BENEVOLENT   INTRUDERS 

"Glory  and  love  to  the  men  of  old!" 
sang  Annie  Dee,  striking  up  the  stirring  Sol- 
diers' Chorus  from  "  Faust,"  — 

"Their  sons  may  copy  their  virtues  bold, 
Courage  in  heart  and  sword  in  hand, 
Yes,  ready  to  fight  and  ready  to  die  for 
their  fa-aa-ther-land." 

"Don't  get  to  fooling!"  Rue  called.  "Can 
you  see  anything?  Of  course  you  can't.  I 
told  you  you  would  n't." 

But  Annie  Dee  was  listening  to  the  deafen- 
ing resonance  of  her  own  voice. 

"Many  a  maiden  fair  is  waiting  here  to  greet  her 

truant  soldier  lover, 
And  many  a  heart  will  fail  and  brow  grow  pale  to 

hear 
The  tale  of  cruel  peril  he  has  run  — " 

"Annie!"  cried  Rue,  in  sudden  alarm. 
"The  ladder's  slipping!  The  nails  are  giving! 
Quick!  Come  back  at  once!" 

But  the  mournful  echoes  of  the  cistern 
blended  all  sounds,  and  Rue's  words  were 
lost  in  the  rush  and  resonance  of  Annie  Dee's 
song: — 

"Glory  and  love  to  the  men  of  old  — " 
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THE  NEWCOMERS 

There  was  a  splash,  a  shriek,  a  last  bellow- 
ing of  echoes,  and  then  silence. 

The  silence  was,  indeed,  complete.  Rue 
made  no  outcry.  To  whom,  indeed,  should 
she  cry  ?  Few  came  up  that  lane ;  Esau  Rys- 
dael  was  not  at  home,  as  she  knew,  and  it 
never  occurred  to  her  to  ask  help  of  Lena. 
Besides,  there  was  no  time  to  waste.  She  ran 
for  the  clothesline,  and  with  trembling  fin- 
gers fastened  one  end  to  a  stout  tree,  and, 
after  making  a  loop  in  the  other  end,  threw 
it  into  the  cistern.  From  the  depths  came  a 
cheerful  voice :  — 

"Don't  worry,  sis;  I've  got  the  rope. 
Tighten  it  up,  please.  Right-O!  But  how '11 
you  haul  me  up?  Better  run  for  help.  And 
don't  worry.  I  'm  enjoying  my  bath." 

Rue  realized  that  she  never  could  pull  her 
sister  up  alone.  She  must  get  help ;  but  could 
Annie  Dee  hold  out  as  long  as  that?  The 
water  was  very  cold,  and  Annie  Dee  was  only 
a  little,  delicate  thing  —  only  a  very  slight, 
delicate,  precious  thing.  Hoping  that  by  some 
miracle  a  delivery-man  or  some  stroller 
84 


BENEVOLENT   INTRUDERS 

might  be  in  the  lane,  she  ran  wildly  toward 
the  front  gate. 

Meanwhile,  Annie  Dee  made  up  her  mind 
that  the  one  essential  thing  for  her  to  do  was 
to  keep  up  her  courage,  and  could  she  do  that 
better  than  by  singing?  She  swept  on  to  the 
finale  of  the  great  chorus :  — 

"Ready  to  fight  and  ready  to  die  for  their 
fatherland." 

Meanwhile,  Rue,  seeing  —  yet  hardly  be- 
lieving that  she  saw  —  two  young  men  at  the 
gate,  tossed  her  two  arms  wildly  over  her 
head  and  shouted  incoherently. 

She  always  said  that  she  told  them  dis- 
tinctly that  her  sister  was  in  the  cistern  cling- 
ing to  a  rope  and  that  she  asked  them,  politely 
if  hastily,  to  come  and  pull  her  out.  The 
Curtis  boys  —  they  were  the  Curtis  boys  — 
bore  witness  that  she  said  nothing,  but  that 
she  behaved  like  a  person  who  had  barely 
escaped  the  hand  of  an  assassin. 

At  any  rate,  she  turned  and  ran  back  to 
the  cistern,  and  they  followed  as  fast  as  their 
feet  could  carry  them.  Then,  at  the  rim  of 
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THE  NEWCOMERS 

the  cistern,  Rue  stood  and  pointed  with 
tragic  finger  toward  the  aperture,  from  which 
came  in  sepulchral  yet  courageous  notes :  — 

"Yes,  ready  to  fight  and  ready  to  die  for  their 
fa-aa-therland." 

"What  is  it?"  demanded  Gordon  Curtis. 

"My  sister!"  cried  Rue,  articulate  at  last. 
"The  ladder  slipped.  She's  in  the  water. 
It's  cold." 

"Why  is  she  singing?" 

"Because  she's  scared  —  and  doesn't 
want  to  be." 

Wylie  Curtis  was  on  his  knees  and  peering 
in.  He  saw  a  pool  of  black  water,  still  and 
deep,  and  a  light  form  floating  on  it,  clinging 
with  small  white  hands  to  a  rope.  The  din  of 
the  song  rilled  his  ears. 

"Oh,  hush  up!"  he  shouted  in  his  com- 
manding masculine  voice.  "I  want  to  talk." 

"Your  turn,"  came  back  a  blithe  but 
somewhat  shaky  voice. 

"Put  that  rope  beneath  your  arms,"  he 
ordered.  "Can  you  do  it?" 

"Yes." 

86 


BENEVOLENT   INTRUDERS 

"Now  cross  it  over  in  front  and  twist  it. 
Ready?" 

"In  a  minute.  Ready!" 

"We're  going  to  pull,"  Wylie  warned  her. 
"It  will  hurt  you." 

"Let  it." 

The  two  boys  began  to  pull  at  the  rope 
hand  over  hand,  steadily,  surely,  gently. 
Rue  lay  flat  on  her  face,  with  her  arms  out- 
stretched, ready  to  grasp  her  sister. 

"I'm  afraid,"  said  Gordon  Curtis,  "that 
it's  hurting  pretty  badly.  Let's  get  it  over 
with  quick,  Wylie." 

Rue  bent  lower,  reached  farther,  and 
caught  a  very  wet,  very  cold  little  form  in 
her  arms. 

"Careful  there!"  Gordon  cried  to  Rue. 
"You '11  go  in  yourself!" 

But  Rue  was  not  thinking  of  herself  as  she 
pulled  the  shivering  little  form  of  her  sister 
over  the  rim ;  she  was  thinking  only  of  poor 
Annie  Dee,  who  lay  still,  with  her  hands  over 
her  eyes.  The  three  young  people  had  the 
sense  to  let  her  alone,  and  in  a  second  or  two 
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she  got  to  her  feet  and  managed  to  make  a 
little  bow  to  the  boys. 

"Whom  have  I  the  honor  of  addressing?'* 
she  asked  gayly,  with  blue  lips. 

"Oh,  sister,  come  into  the  house,  if  you 
don't  want  to  catch  your  death  of  cold!" 
begged  Rue,  and  then,  turning  to  the  young 
men,  said,  "Oh,  do  please  be  so  kind  as  to 
build  a  fire  in  the  kitchen  stove  and  put  the 
kettle  on!  She  must  have  some  hot  coffee 
at  once,  must  n't  she  ?  Oh,  if  only  mother 
were  at  home!" 

She  took  her  sister's  arm  and  ran  with  her 
toward  the  house;  but  at  the  door  Annie  Dee 
freed  herself  and  took  one  look  at  the  benevo- 
lent intruders,  who  were  already  filling  their 
arms  with  fuel  at  the  woodpile. 

"I've  always  kept  your  picture  wreathed 
with  woodbine!"  she  cried. 

As  they  looked  up,  she  fled  to  her  room; 
and  while  her  sister  rolled  her  in  woolen 
blankets  and  tumbled  her  into  bed  she  wept 
copiously  in  true  girlish  fashion. 

"It  was  horribly  froggy!"  she  moaned. 
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BENEVOLENT   INTRUDERS 

"Not  that  I  saw  a  frog;  but  it  was  just  what 
frogs  would  have  liked.  And,  oh,  sis,  my  arms 
ache  so!  And  I'm  so  cold!  I  thought  every 
minute  I  should  get  a  cramp.  I  was  sure  it 
was  coming;  but  it  was  you  who  came  — 
with  the  benefactors.  I'm  all  right  again." 

At  last  Rue,  feeling  rather  weak  now  that 
the  excitement  was  over,  went  to  the  kitchen 
to  make  the  coffee ;  but  she  found  it  already 
made. 

"We  make  excellent  coffee,"  said  Gordon 
Curtis.  "Why  be  unduly  modest  about  it? 
Here  it  is.  Please  convey  it  to  the  mermaid 
with  our  congratulations." 

He  was  using  the  lightest  tone  he  could 
summon.  Rue  understood  the  reason,  and 
she,  too,  did  her  best  not  to  be  serious. 

"She  calls  you  the  benefactors.  It  is  your 
official  title.  And  she  hopes  you  liked  her 
voice." 

"Immensely,"  both  brothers  assured  her, 
as  she  fled  with  the  coffee.  "Immensely!" 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    TOPAZ  NECKLACE 

ABOUT  bringing  Delia  Sessions  to  the 
house,  Annie  Dee  was  as  good  as  her  word. 
She  had  met  her  several  times  at  church  en- 
tertainments and  at  the  reading-room  of  the 
library,  and  had  found  her  quaint  and  inter- 
esting. To  be  sure,  Delia  seemed  a  little  re- 
luctant to  accept  Annie  Dee's  first  invita- 
tion. She  seemed  to  be  saying,  "Are  you  sure 
you  want  me  ?  Have  n't  you  heard  my  story  ? 
Have  n't  they  told  you  that  my  mother  was 
a  thief  or  a  crazy  woman  —  or  both  ?  Are 
you  my  friend  in  spite  of  it'or  because  you 
know  nothing  of  it?" 

But  that  unspoken  inquiry  met  with  no 
response  from  Annie  Dee.  It  was  not  always 
possible  to  tell  what  was  going  on  in  the  mind 
of  that  capricious  young  person.  Delia  Ses- 
sions spent  some  time  wondering  about  it 
the  day  she  first  went  to  the  Wardell  cottage. 
90 


THE  TOPAZ  NECKLACE 

Annie  Dee  was  waiting  for  her  at  the  gate, 
and  waved  so  gay  a  welcome  to  her  that  Delia 
involuntarily  quickened  her  footsteps.  She 
was  a  girl  with  few  friends  —  with  none  who 
answered  the  need  of  her  starved  heart.  Her 
life  had  been  shadowed  by  the  knowledge  of 
her  mother's  malady  and  by  the  realization 
that  her  story  was  passed  on  to  strangers  by 
her  Dalroy  neighbors.  Loyalty  to  her  dead 
mother,  pride,  shyness,  and  sensitiveness  had 
caused  her  to  draw  within  herself,  and  she 
confided  in  no  one,  not  even  her  elderly 
cousin,  the  postmistress  of  Dalroy,  with 
whom  she  lived.  Delia  served  her  as  house- 
keeper, and  their  relations  seemed  to  end 
with  their  practical  service  to  each  other. 

"  How  nice  of  you  not  to  be  late,"  said 
Annie  Dee  as  she  went  out  into  the  lane  to 
meet  her.  "Mother  and  Rue  are  both  going 
out  presently,  and  I  want  them  to  meet  you 
before  they  go.  Is  n't  this  a  wonderful  day?" 

"It  's  a  pretty  day,"  said  Delia  primly. 
"But  I  don't  often  think  about  the  weather; 
do  you?" 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"I  should  say  I  did.  I'm  dreadfully  par- 
ticular about  my  weather.  There  is  n't  a  bet- 
ter critic  of  it  anywhere !  No  one  can  make 
more  cheerful  noise  over  a  good  day  or  more 
of  a  row  over  a  bad  one  than  I  can." 

"Well,  it's  on  account  of  the  bad  days 
that  I  taught  myself  not  to  pay  much  atten- 
tion to  the  good  ones,"  Delia  explained. 
"Not  to  care  how  things  come,  or  whether 
they're  good  or  bad,  that's  my  idea  of  get- 
ting along  in  life." 

When  Delia  entered  the  house  she  looked 
about  her  with  shy  enjoyment. 

"Oh,"  she  said,  "I  never  dreamed  you'd 
have  a  place  like  this!  The  house  always 
seemed  to  me  like  a  little  ruin.  How  did  you 
make  it  look  so  bright?" 

"Oh,  it  was  n't  a  ruin  —  it  was  only  lone- 
some!" said  Annie  Dee,  laughing.  "We 
heartened  it  up,  chucked  it  under  the  chin, 
slapped  it  on  the  back,  and  it  felt  better  at 
once.  Mother,  this  is  Miss  Sessions.  Rue, 
you've  met  Delia  Sessions?  Oh,  don't  be 
frightened,  Delia;  that  isn't  a  rat  you  see 
92 


THE  TOPAZ   NECKLACE 

under  the  chair.  It's  only  another  of  our 
guests  —  one  of  the  Rysdael  squirrels.  They 
're  making  rather  free  here  just  now,  and  I 
suppose  we  ought  to  discipline  them,  but 
when  they  sit  up  begging  with  their  hands  on 
their  hearts,  we  can't  resist  them." 

"I  only  stayed  to  welcome  you,  Miss  Ses- 
sions," said  Mrs.  Wardell,  smiling  at  the  girl 
in  her  motherly  way.  "We  're  having  a  meet- 
ing at  Mrs.  Thwait's  this  afternoon  at  which 
we  hope  to  form  a  woman's  club  for  Dalroy 
—  and  not  exclusively  for  middle-aged  ladies. 
We  hope  to  make  it  so  interesting  that  our 
young  friends  will  consent  to  join." 

"Will  it  be  a  study  club,  Mrs.  Wardell?" 
asked  the  girl  earnestly.  "  I  'd  like  to  take  up 
some  course  of  study  and  improve  myself." 

"Yes,  a  club  for  social  and  literary  pur- 
poses with  a  little  music  and  art  thrown  in. 
Maybe  we  shall  do  some  village-improve- 
ment work,  too.  I  'd  like  a  tree-planting  day 
and  a  children's  day —  even  a  mother's  day." 

"I  don't  think  I  like  set  occasions,"  said 
the  girl.  "Anniversaries  are  quite  as  likely  to 
93 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

be  dismal  reminders  as  glad  ones.  It  always 
annoys  me  to  have  people  decide  that  they'll 
be  happy  on  a  certain  day.  I  suppose  I'm 
obstinate,  but  it  makes  me  want  to  close  my 
doors  and  sulk." 

Mrs.  Wardell  laughed  good-humoredly. 
"You're  a  born  individualist,  then.  Well,  if 
we  can  get  you  into  our  club  and  make  a 
cooperator  out  of  you,  we  shall  be  fortunate 
indeed.  An  individualist  converted  into  a 
cooperator  is  the  most  effective  human  being 
in  the  world.  Forgive  me  for  leaving  you. 
I  shall  hope  to  call  on  your  cousin  and  your- 
self some  time,  for  I  should  n't  think  of  wait- 
ing for  such  a  busy  woman  as  your  cousin  to 
call  on  me." 

Delia  flushed  through  her  dark  skin.  She 
was  always  ready  to  discount  kind  things  that 
were  said  to  her,  but  it  was  impossible  to  dis- 
trust these  people.  Could  it  be,  she  won- 
dered, that  these  newcomers,  so  gracious  in 
manner,  really  knew  how  little  account  in 
Dalroy  she  and  her  cousin  were  ?  Her  cousin 
was,  after  all,  only  a  little,  worried,  wizened, 
94 


THE  TOPAZ   NECKLACE 

ill-favored  woman.  Delia  desperately  feared 
that  she  might  come  to  resemble  her  cousin, 
and  it  was  that  fear  that  had  set  her  to  cul- 
tivating the  habit  of  indifference.  Yet  here 
were  these  people,  so  delightful,  so  different 
from  any  she  knew,  treating  her  like  a  possi- 
ble friend !  A  warm  little  glow  of  self-appre- 
ciation flooded  the  girl.  The  tight  expression 
about  her  mouth  relaxed;  her  awkwardness 
disappeared. 

Rue  brought  in  some  cakes  and  lemonade 
and  put  them  on  a  taboret. 

"My  humble  contribution,"  she  said. 
"Also  my  peace  offering.  I  am  off  to  the 
woods,  Miss  Sessions,  to  find  a  good  place  for 
a  picnic.  Mother  is  giving  a  woodland  party 
next  week  while  the  Curtises  are  here,  and  as 
I  'm  cursed  with  a  systematic  mind  and  can't 
leave  things  to  chance,  I  must  go  and  find  the 
precise  spot.  Get  down,  you  little  beggar!" 
she  went  on  to  one  of  the  squirrels,  which  had 
leaped  upon  her  shoulder.  "  I  Ve  fed  you  till 
you're  in  danger  of  your  death  from  indi- 
gestion. We  ought  not  to  allow  them  in  the 
95 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

house,"  she  said  to  Delia,  "but  we're  such 
weak  characters  that  we  can't  refuse  them." 

After  Rue  had  gone  from  the  room,  Delia 
Sessions  sat  thinking  for  a  moment  or  two 
in  silence,  while  Annie  Dee  served  the  iced 
drink.  This  family  was  the  kind  she  had 
always  wanted  people  to  be — the  kind  they 
were  in  books !  She  could  see  Rue  in  the  ad- 
joining room  tying  on  her  graceful  sun-hat, 
and  wished  that  she  and  Annie  Dee  were  go- 
ing to  the  woods,  too ;  but  she  was  too  shy  to 
propose  it.  She  wondered  why  she  so  seldom 
went  to  the  woods.  Dalroy  was  surrounded 
by  lovely  groves  and  it  had  its  fine  river,  but 
she  had  made  no  use  of  them.  She  had  al- 
ways excused  herself  by  saying  she  had  no 
friend  to  go  with  her,  yet  here  was  this  much- 
sought  young  woman  going  by  herself,  and 
well  pleased  at  the  prospect,  apparently. 
There  was  something  the  matter  with  her- 
self, Delia  decided.  She  lacked  "go";  she 
did  not  know  enough  to  use  what  opportuni- 
ties for  pleasure  she  had! 

"Please  undo  my  chain,  sister!"  Rue 
96 


THE   TOPAZ   NECKLACE 

called,  and  Annie  Dee  ran  to  unclasp  the  deli- 
cate strand  of  gold  about  Rue's  neck.  A 
small  stone,  a  topaz,  yellow  as  living  sun- 
shine and  clear  as  crystal,  hung  from  the 
chain.  Delia  had  noticed  it  swinging  gayly 
in  its  golden  circlet,  and  had  thought  it  just 
the  sort  of  jewel  for  a  girl  like  Rue  to  wear. 

"Did  you  bring  your  sewing?"  asked 
Annie  Dee  when  they  were  settled  by  them- 
selves. "I'm  so  glad!  I'm  embroidering 
little  baskets  of  pink  roses  on  these  towels. 
Are  n't  they  sweet  ?  I  'm  making  mother  a 
set  of  a  dozen.  What  are  you  making?  Oh, 
a  bureau  cover !  How  pretty !  Are  n't  you 
glad  you're  a  girl?  Boys  miss  a  lot  by  not 
sewing,  don't  they?  I  think  they  have  a  very 
dull  time  of  it  in  their  off  hours.  Don't  you 
hate  to  have  a  man  round  the  house  all 
day?" 

"I  don't  know,  for  I  never  had  one.  My 
father  died  years  ago,  and  I  Ve  no  brother." 

"How  stupid  of  me!  But  I  am  that  way 
—  stupid.    I  don't  see  why.   You  'd  think  I 
was  going  to  be  intelligent  to  hear  me  talk  — 
97 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

that  is,  if  you  did  n't  listen  too  long.  My 
father  is  dead,  too,  but  I've  a  brother.  Of 
course  you  must  n't  think  that  I  dislike  men, 
Delia.  I  was  only  meaning  that  I  liked  to 
have  little  times  like  this  when  I  could  be  a 
complete  girl  and  not  have  to  live  up  to  any 
masculine  ideas." 

Meanwhile,  Rue  had  turned  her  back  on 
the  town,  wandered  down  the  lane,  climbed 
a  fence,  crossed  a  meadow  and  come  at  last 
to  Borrow's  Woods.  The  spell  of  the  sum- 
mer was  waning,  but  only  to  yield  to  the 
charm  of  approaching  fall. 

As  Rue  made  her  way  along  a  wood  path 
she  suddenly  came  upon  a  man  down  on  his 
knees,  with  a  magnifying  glass  in  his  hand, 
bending  over  a  granite  boulder.  That  slack, 
loose-jointed  figure,  that  great  head,  those 
rough  clothes  belonged  to  Esau  Rysdael,  the 
old  school-teacher.  He  had  never  spoken  to 
Rue,  and  had  seemed  not  so  much  as  to  recog- 
nize the  existence  of  herself  or  of  her  family, 
yet  Rue,  seeing  him  there,  felt  unaccount- 
ably social. 

98 


WHEN    HE    RECOGNIZED    HER,   THE   SMILE   GAVE   PLACE  TO  A 
FROWN 


THE  TOPAZ  NECKLACE 

Esau  Rysdael  heard  Rue's  feet  crunching 
among  the  twigs  and  looked  up  with  a  smile ; 
but  when  he  recognized  her,  the  smile  gave 
place  to  a  frown.  That  put  Rue  on  her  met- 
tle. Why  should  she,  feeling  as  glad  to  be 
alive  as  she  did,  be  disliked  by  a  Rysdael  or 
by  any  one  ? 

"Excuse  me,"  she  said  in  the  musical 
voice  that  was  so  much  like  her  mother's. 
"Is  it  that  ladybird  you  are  looking  at 
through  your  glass?" 

As  Rue  spoke,  Esau  Rysdael  looked  her 
over;  and  as  he  looked,  the  frown  slowly 
smoothed  away. 

"The  ladybird,"  he  said  deliberately,  "is 
a  mere  intruder." 

"Like  myself,"  said  Rue,  flushing. 

"Both  you  and  the  ladybird  have  a  right 
to  the  woods,"  he  replied.  Then,  after  a 
pause,  he  added,  "  I  am  collecting  lichens.  It 
is  a  delicate  business.  Look  at  this  fairy  lace 
that  I  am  trying  to  detach  from  the  rock  and 
transfer  uninjured  to  my  book." 

Rue  drew  near,  and  saw  upon  the  rough 
99 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

surface  of  the  boulder  an  exquisite  pink 
tracery  finer  than  any  imaginable  needle- 
work. 

"I  have  counted  ten  varieties  of  lichen 
upon  this  one  boulder,"  went  on  the  natural- 
ist, "which  is  really  quite  a  number,  though 
not  exceptional  —  not  at  all  exceptional. 
Are  you  interested  in  lichens?" 

"I  have  n't  had  much  chance  to  learn  of 
such  things,  and  have  n't  availed  myself, 
I  'm  afraid,  of  such  chances  as  have  come  my 
way.  But  I  should  like  —  oh,  immensely !  — 
to  know  about  them.  I  was  thinking  as  I  came 
along  that  I  could  only  look  at  the  woods  with 
ignorant  and  uncomprehending  eyes." 

"Ah,  you  feel  that,  do  you?"  cried  the  old 
teacher  with  a  sudden  light  in  his  face.  "It 
is  something  to  have  got  as  far  as  that." 

"I  feel  it  deeply,"  said  Rue.  "Will  you  tell 
me  how  I  can  learn  the  things  I  wish  to 
know  ?  I  can't  go  to  school  any  more  because 
I  must  work.  My  vacation  is  almost  over." 

"You  are  fortunate,"  he  said  shortly. 
"How  would  you  feel  if  you  had  a  prolonged 
100 


THE   TOPAZ   NECKLACE 

vacation  thrust  upon  you  ?  What  if  you  had 
been  used  to  one  work  for  years  and  suddenly 
found  your  occupation  gone  ? " 

Rue 's  swift  thought  told  her  that  he  would 
not  have  spoken  like  that  in  another  place, 
but  the  quiet  woods  put  them  apart  from  the 
usual  conventionalities. 

"I  should  find  it  very  hard,  Mr.  Rysdael." 

"Yet  my  daughter  tells  me,  Miss  Wardell, 
that  you  sympathize  with  the  action  taken 
in  regard  to  me."  He  looked  at  her  with  the 
sharp  gaze  of  the  schoolmaster.  "You  see,  I 
speak  out  what  is  in  my  mind." 

"And  so  do  I,"  answered  Rue.  "I  only 
said  that  I  believed  in  progress,  and  that  I 
knew  there  were  new  things  in  teaching  — 
things  that  made  pupils  enthusiastic  over 
their  lessons.  I  thought  Dalroy  should  have 
the  benefit  of  them.  I  did  n't  mean  to  offend 
your  daughter." 

The  old  naturalist  lifted  the  ladybird  on 

one  finger  and  looked  at  it  for  a  moment  with 

whimsical  enjoyment  of  its  beauty;  then,  as 

it  took  wing,  he  turned  to  Rue  with  a  smile. 

101 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"I  know  that  we  have  seemed  bad  neigh- 
bors," he  said;  "but  my  girl,  Lena,  can't 
bring  herself  to  take  up  with  any  one  who 
does  n't  stand  by  me." 

"I  don't  blame  her,"  Rue  declared.  "I 
thought  it  sweet  of  her  all  the  time.  When- 
ever I've  started  to  feel  angry  at  the  way 
she  treated  us,  I've  straightway  forgiven 
her  because  I  liked  her  for  being  so  loyal 
to  you." 

"You  see,"  went  on  the  man,  "the  situa- 
tion has  been  a  peculiar  one.  I  have  been 
looked  on  for  years  as  the  leading  educational 
man  in  the  county.  Now  I  Ve  been  put  in  the 
wrong  by  a  couple  of  women  with  a  lot  of 
fads.  It  has  been  humiliating." 

Rue  made  no  answer.  She  wondered 
whether  he  in  his  heart  of  hearts  did  not 
know  that  he  was  being  unjust. 

"Of  course,"  he  said  in  a  changed  tone, 
"I  must  admit  that  I  am  never  so  happy  as 
when  I  can  go  about  the  woods  and  amuse 
myself  as  I  am  doing  to-day.  If  I  had  been 
allowed  to  bring  my  classes  to  the  woods,  I 

102 


THE   TOPAZ   NECKLACE 

could  have  taught  them  something  worth  the 
knowing  —  something  they  could  not  have 
learned  from  every  one.  I  tried  it  years  ago. 
But  do  you  suppose  the  fanatics  in  the  three 
R's  would  let  me  do  that  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  I 
must  stay  in  the  classroom  with  my  pupils 
and  hold  them  to  the  same  unchanging  round. 
So  I  did.  I  gave  them  so  much  of  what  they 
wanted  that  I  suppose  they  got  tired  of  it." 
He  sighed  heavily. 

"You  were  ahead  of  your  time.  Why 
don't  you  form  woodland  classes  now,  Mr. 
Rysdael?" 

He  shook  his  head  gloomily  and  did  not 
answer.  There  was  something  almost  child- 
like about  him  in  spite  of  his  schoolmaster 
manner. 

"Are  lichens  your  specialty?"  Rue  asked, 
with  her  eyes  shining  with  sympathy. 

"Lichens?  Oh,  no,  I  cannot  say  that  they 
receive  more  of  my  attention  than  many 
other  things.  All  plants,  all  flowers,  all  trees 
interest  me,  though  not  more  than  bird  and 
animal  life.  Won't  you  step  over  to  the  house 
103 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

some  day  and  see  my  specimens?  Or  per- 
haps they  would  not  interest  you?'* 

He  looked  wistful,  almost  timid,  like  one 
who  fears  to  have  his  invitation  refused. 

"Of  course  I'll  come!"  Rue  cried.  "If  you 
will  make  my  peace  with  your  daughter." 

"Easily  done,  easily  done,"  he  said  quickly. 
"Lena  likes  you  now  —  wants  to  know  you. 
It 's  only  her  great  loyalty  to  me  that  makes 
her  act  as  she  does.  I  wish  she  'd  get  out  more 
and  forget  our  troubles ;  but  she  stays  in  and 
broods  over  what  is  to  become  of  us." 

"Yes,  of  course,"  Rue  murmured.  "You'll 
be  wanting  to  do  something  soon."  With  the 
words  came  an  idea.  "Oh,  Mr.  Rysdael,  why 
not  write  a  book  on  lichens?"  she  demanded. 
"Why,  you'd  love  to,  would  n't  you ?  Think 
what  *  fairy  tales  of  science'  you  could  tell  and 
what  illustrations  you  could  have !  Just  fancy 
a  colored  print  of  that!"  Rue  pointed  to 
the  marvelous  tracery  of  the  fronded  lichen 
on  the  rock.  "Why,  you  must  have  endless 
things  to  say  on  the  subject,"  she  added. 

Esau  Rysdael  looked  at  her  from  under  his 
104 


THE   TOPAZ   NECKLACE 

overhanging  eyebrows.  Absurdly  enough,  he 
was  shyer  than  ever.  He  seemed  to  be  want- 
ing this  resourceful  young  person  to  go  on. 

"  It  is  what  you  really  care  for,  is  n't  it, 
Mr.  Rysdael  ?  If  you  wrote  a  book  on  the 
subject,  would  n't  there  be  a  demand  for  it 
in  schools  and  colleges?  You  could  write  it 
interestingly  and  yet  in  such  a  way  that  it 
would  serve  for  a  textbook." 

She  received  no  answer.  The  old  teacher 
seemed  to  be  thinking,  and  his  eyes  fell  again 
to  the  granite  boulder.  Then  he  looked  up 
with  a  smile. 

"I  believe  that  it's  worth  thinking  about." 

It  seemed  to  Rue  the  right  minute  to  go  — 
she  would  vanish  and  leave  him  to  do  his 
thinking.  She  gave  him  her  best  smile  and 
bow  and  hastened  on  into  the  sunlit  grove 
beyond.  It  was  very  pleasant  there  —  just 
the  place  for  the  picnic.  She  would  have  liked 
to  linger,  but  she  was  so  eager  to  tell  her 
family  about  her  meeting  with  Mr.  Rysdael 
that  she  turned  and  hastened  homeward  by 
another  path. 

105 


The  cottage  was  wrapped  in  quiet.  Feel- 
ing certain  that  Annie  Dee  was  sleeping,  Rue 
stole  in  noiselessly;  and  sure  enough,  curled 
up  in  the  hammock  lay  her  little  sister,  dead 
to  joys  and  troubles. 

Rue  had  that  feeling  of  vague  and  utterly 
senseless  irritation  she  always  felt  when  she 
got  home  and  found  her  mother  absent.  There 
was  no  one  at  all  to  talk  to,  although  there 
was  so  much  to  tell.  She  made  the  best  of  it 
by  treating  herself  to  a  glass  of  cool  milk  and 
looking  over  a  magazine  while  she  rested. 
Then  she  took  a  cool  bath  and  dressed  her- 
self in  the  thinnest  frock  she  could  find  —  a 
white  lawn,  sprigged  with  yellow  buttercups. 

"My  little  topaz  goes  nicely  with  this," 
she  said  half  aloud.  "I  '11  put  that  on." 

She  remembered  that  before  leaving  for  the 
woods  she  had  tossed  the  chain  and  pendant 
on  her  dressing-table;  but  it  was  not  there 
now. 

"Annie  Dee  has  put  it  away,"  she  said  to 
herself,  and  searched  in  the  little  box  where 
she  kept  her  "pretties."  It  was  not  there, 
1 06 


THE   TOPAZ   NECKLACE 

however,  or  in  the  drawers  of  the  dressing- 
table.  Could  Annie  Dee  have  put  it  on?  It 
was  not  likely,  but  on  the  chance  of  rinding  it 
round  her  sister's  neck,  she  stole  out  to  the 
hammock.  Annie  Dee's  white  throat  was 
bare. 

As  Rue  gazed  at  her  sister,  Annie  Dee's 
eyelids  fluttered  and  opened. 

"Oh,  it's  you,  sister?  Is  it  time  to  get 
supper?"  Annie  Dee  cried. 

"I'm  sorry  I  wakened  you,  dear.  No,  it's 
not  quite  supper-time.  I  was  looking  for  my 
little  chain  and  pendant.  I  can't  find  them." 

"You  dropped  them  on  the  dressing- 
table—" 

"I  know.  They're  not  there." 

Annie  Dee  leaped  from  her  hammock  and 
ran  to  the  bedroom.  She  searched  every- 
where. Then  she  turned  a  white  face  toward 
her  sister. 

"It's  the  queerest  thing  in  the  world!" 

"Don't  mind  so  much,  honey!  What's  the 
matter  with  you,  anyway?" 

"Nothing  at  all.  I  saw  the  necklace  after 
107 


THE   NEWCOMERS 

you  left.  Delia  Sessions  was  looking  at  it. 
She  said  that  she  thought  the  way  the  stone 
was  set  was  charming.  She  —  she  was  look- 
ing at  it  when  I  went  to  speak  to  a  delivery- 
man." 

The  words  seemed  to  die  in  her  throat. 
She  tried  to  strangle  the  memories  as  they 
were  born;  but  in  spite  of  all  she  could  do 
the  stories  she  had  heard  of  Delia  Sessions's 
half-demented,  thieving,  piteous  little  mother 
came  trooping  back,  and  along  with  them 
Miss  Ferris's  remarks  about  the  resem- 
blance between  Delia  and  her  mother. 

"People  wonder,"  Miss  Ferris  had  said, 
"if  she'll  follow  in  her  mother's  footsteps." 

Rue  was  remembering  all,  too,  as  her  sister 
could  see;  both  of  them  were  trembling  as 
they  did  when  they  saw  anything  ugly  or 
cruel,  and  the  younger  sister  put  the  thoughts 
of  both  into  words  when  she  said :  — 

"Oh,  I  wish  mother  would  come!" 

Almost  upon  the  word  their  mother  ap- 
peared in  the  doorway,  and  they  blurted  out 
their  tale  in  their  clear,  excited  voices. 
108 


THE  TOPAZ   NECKLACE 

"What  shall  we  do?"  Annie  Dee  con- 
cluded. 

"Do?"  repeated  Mrs.  Wardell,  with  a 
curious  light  shining  in  her  eyes.  "Why, 
invite  Delia  to  our  picnic  the  very  first  of 
all!" 

"You  mean—" 

"I  mean  that  the  girl  did  n't  do  it,"  Mrs. 
Wardell  declared.  "Why,  she'd  be  the  last 
person  in  Dalroy  to  do  such  a  thing!  Don't 
you  see  she  would?  After  all  she  has  suf- 
fered, she  'd  never  commit  such  a  fault.  And 
whatever  you  do,  never,  never  let  a  hint  of 
this  get  out.  Never  tell  any  one  —  not  any 
one—" 

There  was  a  dry  little  cough  at  the  door, 
and  all  three  Wardells,  turning  at  once,  saw 
Miss  Ferris,  acknowledged  queen  of  the  town 
gossips,  standing  there,  with  a  sardonic 
smile  on  her  lips  that  said  plainer  than  words : 

"I  told  you  so." 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    SOFTENING   OF  NANCY   FERRIS 

RUE  and  Annie  Dee  turned  scarlet.  Mrs. 
Wardell  grew  pale. 

"Come  in,  Miss  Ferris,"  she  said  politely. 
"Come  in  and  sit  down." 

Miss  Ferris  lifted  the  skirt  of  her  gray  silk 
and  entered.  She  was  quite  aware  that  the 
atmosphere  was  palpitant.  Mrs.  Wardell 
and  her  daughters  stood  in  embarrassed 
silence. 

"You  heard  what  we  said?"  asked  Mrs. 
Wardell,  after  a  moment. 

"I  heard  a  little  of  it,"  Miss  Ferris  re- 
plied, with  her  thin  lips  looking  thinner  and 
her  pale  eyes  paler  than  usual.  "And  I 
guessed  the  rest." 

"So  now,"  quietly  said  Mrs.  Wardell, 
"you  are  thinking,  'This  is  what  I  predicted/ 
and  you  are  glad  —  or  almost  glad  —  that 
the  poor  girl  seems  to  have  fulfilled  your 

1 10 


THE   SOFTENING  OF  NANCY 

prophecy.  But  it  is  too  soon  for  you  to  re- 
joice, if  it  has  occurred  to  you  to  do  so, 
Miss  Ferris,  for  our  guest  has  done  nothing 
that  would  make  us  lessen  our  regard  for 
her." 

Miss  Ferris  smiled  a  wry  little  smile,  half 
of  irritation,  half  of  admiration,  evidently 
thinking  it  "thoroughbred"  of  Mrs.  Wardell 
to  put  a  good  face  on  the  matter.  Then,  as 
she  looked,  she  saw  a  change  of  expression  in 
Mrs.  Wardell's  face.  It  melted  into  sudden 
and  genuine  friendliness,  as  if  she  had  sum- 
moned some  ideal,  for  a  moment  lost. 

"Oh,  please  forgive  me,"  she  cried  con- 
tritely, "for  foisting  such  thoughts  on  you! 
Why  should  I  think  you  were  rejoicing  be- 
cause that  nice  girl  has  been  put  into  an  em- 
barrassing situation?  It  is  true  that  I  saw 
that  look  come  into  your  face,  Miss  Ferris,  — 
it  told  me  that  you  were  glad  in  spite  of  your 
better  self;  but  I  ought  not  to  have  seen  it.  I 
ought  to  have  looked  away  and  given  your  gen- 
erosity and  dignity  a  chance  to  take  charge 
of  your  spirit.  I  ought  to  have  realized  that 
in 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

you  who  have  known  that  girl  ever  since  she 
was  a  baby  and  who  know  all  she  has  suf- 
fered would  be  much  quicker  than  I  to  wish 
her  well  and  to  protect  her  reputation." 

"But  that's  not  true,  mother,"  broke  in 
the  uncompromising  Rue.  "It  was  Miss 
Ferris  who  told  us  about  Delia,  and  she 
need  n't  have  told  us  at  all." 

"I  know  she  told  us,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell, 
"but  she  regretted  it.  She  went  further  than 
she  meant  that  day.  Is  n't  that  so,  Nancy 
Ferris  ?  Did  n't  you  lie  awake  that  night 
after  you  had  gone  to  bed  and  wish  you  had 
bitten  your  tongue  out  before  you  told  the 
story  that  prejudiced  us  against  Delia  Ses- 
sions?" 

Nancy  Ferris  moved  restlessly  in  her  chair 
and  her  eyes  fell;  then  she  lifted  them  and 
looked  Mrs.  Wardell  in  the  face. 

"It  is  quite  true,"  she  said.  "I  hated  my- 
self for  all  I  had  told  you  that  day,  not  only 
about  Delia,  but  about  other  people  here  in 
town.  I  never  meant  to  run  on  like  that;  I 
only  wanted  to  entertain  you ;  and  then,  too, 
112 


THE   SOFTENING   OF  NANCY 

stories  about  people's  lives  interest  me.  But 
when  I  thought  how  I  must  have  seemed  to 
you,  I  was  ashamed.  I  'm  known  as  the  vil- 
lage gossip,  and  have  been  for  years.  I  have 
lived  here  a  long  time,  and  I  Ve  taken  a  great 
interest  in  people  and  can't  help  knowing 
their  stories." 

"Of  course  you  can't.  In  a  way  it  was  en- 
joyment of  life  and  alertness  that  made  you 
take  such  a  keen  interest  in  your  neighbors. 
You  learned  your  book  of  comedy  through 
and  through.  If  you  had  been  a  playwright, 
no  one  would  have  blamed  you  for  studying 
human  nature  in  a  satirical  spirit.  I  only 
regret  that  a  mind  like  yours,  so  keen  and 
restless,  had  nothing  else  to  occupy  it ;  or,  if 
you  were  destined  to  be  a  recorder  of  human 
frailties,  I  wish  you  might  have  done  it  in  a 
literary,  impersonal  way  instead  of  carrying 
stories  from  neighbor  to  neighbor." 

Miss  Ferris  flushed  deeply,  but  she  did  not 
withdraw  her  gaze ;  she  still  faced  her  friendly 
judge,  although  the  tears  sprang  into  her 
eyes. 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"I  wish  it,  too,"  she  said  beneath  her 
breath. 

"You  might  be  going  to  the  university  at 
this  minute,"  went  on  Mrs.  Wardell.  "  Plenty 
of  women  of  our  age  do.  You  could  be  study- 
ing some  form  of  art  or  philosophy  or  taking 
up  a  course  in  literature.  We're  going  to 
make  things  of  that  sort  possible  here  in 
Dalroy,  as  you  have  no  doubt  heard,  and 
I  want  you  for  a  charter  member  of  our 
woman's  club." 

!    "No!"  broke  from  Nancy  Ferris.   "After 
what  you've  thought  —  and  said?" 

"It's  over,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell,  with  her 
hand  outstretched.  "I've  finished.  I  know 
that  till  the  last  day  of  your  life  you  will 
never  repeat  the  conversation  you  overheard 
between  my  daughters  and  myself.  You  will 
never  put  us  in  the  wrong  by  letting  any  one 
know  that  suspicion  of  our  guest  crossed  our 
minds,  even  in  the  faintest,  swiftest  way. 
You'll  forgive  us  for  everything,  and  you'll 
help  us  find  the  thing  that's  lost?" 

"Indeed  I  will  and  shall  be  glad  to,"  said 
114 


Miss  Ferris  heartily.  "I'll  help  you  to  the 
best  of  my  ability;  and  whether  we  find  it  or 
not.  I  shall  never,  to  my  dying  day,  speak  of 
the  matter.  YouVe  said  some  brave  things 
to  me,  Mrs.  Wardell,  and  I  won't  deny  that 
they  hurt,  but  I  feel  I  deserved  them.  I  'm 
going  to  forgive  you  for  being  just  to  me  — 
and  that 's  a  hard  thing  to  do,  sometimes." 

Eagerly,  anxiously,  they  searched  the 
house  over;  they  looked  in  all  imaginable  and 
unimaginable  places.  They  reviewed  all  pos- 
sible theories;  the  "evidence"  was  gone  over 
again  and  again.  It  came  to  this:  the  last 
person  seen  handling  the  necklace  was  Delia 
Sessions,  daughter  of  a  kleptomaniac,  and  the 
necklace  was  gone. 

But  Mrs.  Wardell's  faith  did  not  falter. 

"I'm  going  to  sit  down,"  she  said,  after 
the  search  had  been  given  up  for  the  time 
being,  "and  write  the  invitations  to  my 
woodland  party.  Would  you  like  to  help  me, 
Miss  Ferris?  You  write  such  a  charming 
hand!  You  see,  I  want  to  make  it  clear  that 
I  and  my  family  are  to  be  counted  in  with 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

the  neighbors  here  at  Dalroy;  and  then,  too, 
I  wish  to  entertain  while  the  Curtises  are 
here.  The  first  person  to  be  invited  shall  be 
Delia  Sessions." 

"Good  for  you,  mamma!"  cried  Annie 
Dee,  throwing  her  arms  about  her  mother's 
neck.  "You  have  n't  an  idea  how  glad  I 
am  that  I  made  your  acquaintance  early  in 
life!" 

Miss  Ferris,  somewhat  shaken  by  the 
swift  tempo  of  Wardell  conversation,  sank 
into  a  chair  by  the  reading-table. 

"  Indeed,"  she  said,  "  I  '11  be  most  happy 
to  help  you  with  the  invitations." 

She  was  quiet,  —  even  humble,  —  but  Mrs. 
Wardell  knew,  and  the  girls  knew,  that  over 
and  over  again  in  her  head  went  the  per- 
plexing fact  that  Rue's  pretty  necklace  was 
gone,  that  Delia  Sessions  was  the  person  who 
had  last  handled  it,  and  that  she,  Nancy 
Ferris,  had  always  said  that  if  you  watched 
the  girl  long  enough  you  would  see  what  you 
would  see ! 

The  day  of  the  picnic  dawned  gloriously, 
116 


THE  SOFTENING  OF  NANCY 

and  that,  according  to  Annie  Dee,  was  de- 
cidedly unconventional. 

"Now,  the  orthodox  picnic  day,"  she  said, 
"  is  lowering,  or  at  least  uncertain.  The  dis- 
tant muttering  of  thunder  is  heard;  the 
wind  is  in  the  wrong  direction.  But  to-day, 
as  you  can  see  for  yourself,  is  cool,  bright, 
and  steady.  It  is  n't  natural  —  it  means 
that  something  strange  is  going  to  happen." 

Mrs.  Wardell  and  Rue,  busy  with  sand- 
wiches, meat  loaves,  cakes  and  ices,  for  once 
paid  little  attention  to  Annie  Dee  and  her 
prophesyings. 

Their  own  thoughts  occupied  them  suf- 
ficiently, for  they  realized  that  it  was  a  day 
of  significance  for  more  than  one  reason. 
First  and  foremost,  it  definitely  established 
the  Wardells  as  participants  in  the  social 
life  of  the  village  and  lifted  them  out  of  the 
mere  class  of  onlookers  and  transients.  And 
what  was  of  more  importance,  they  had  re- 
fused to  recognize  distinctions  that  Dalroy 
made  and  had  invited  every  one  in  town 
whom  they  knew. 

117 


THE   NEWCOMERS 

"The  just  and  the  unjust  are  asked/* 
Annie  Dee  said  to  Patricia  Quincannon,  who 
had  come  early  to  help.  "And  Lena  Rys- 
dael  and  her  father  among  them.  But  that 
was  a  victory  —  their  acceptance !  When  I 
went  over  there  to  ask  them,  my  teeth  were 
chattering  with  fright.  But  I  knocked  at  the 
door  just  as  boldly  as  if  I  were  selling  patent 
iron-handles.  'I  have  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion, Miss  Rysdael,'  said  I,  'from  the  squir- 
rels—  friends  of  ours.  Mother  is  giving  a 
party  in  the  woods  for  your  old  friends,  Gor- 
don and  Wylie  Curtis,  and  she  wants  you  to 
come.  She  says  she's  going  to  have  some 
strawberry  jam,  and  that  she's  sure  it  does 
n't  taste  a  bit  scorched/  Well,  when  I  spoke 
of  the  strawberry  jam,  she  just  wilted.  Evi- 
dently she  thought  we  were  such  ninnies  that 
we  'd  never  guess  who  saved  it  from  destruc- 
tion that  day  mother  set  it  over  the  fire  and 
then  walked  away  and  forgot  it.  She  blushed 
and  laughed,  and  said  her  father  had  been 
talking  about  what  a  good  time  he  had  with 
Rue  that  day  she  suggested  that  he  should 
118 


THE   SOFTENING  OF  NANCY 

write  a  book  on  lichens.  'He's  decided  to 
do  it,'  she  said.  'He  wrote  to  some  publish- 
ers, and  they  thought  well  of  it.'  The  battle 
of  Rysdael  Grove  is  over!" 

So  the  Rysdaels,  the  Curtises,  Mrs.  Thwait, 
Patricia  Quincannon,  John  Harmon,  Miss 
Ferris,  three  clergymen,  their  wives  and 
young  people,  Miss  Torrey,  Delia  Sessions, 
and  two-score  of  their  neighbors  made  their 
way  to  the  benevolent  shade  of  Borrow's 
Grove. 

"  Is  n't  it  curious,"  said  Patricia  to  Robert 
Wardell,  "how  well  people  look  beneath 
trees  ?  Now,  there  are  quite  a  number  of  us 
here  who  would  make  anything  except  an  im- 
posing spectacle  if  we  were,  say,  on  the  Grand 
Staircase  of  the  Paris  Opera  House ;  but  here 
we're  very  agreeable-looking,  indeed." 

"We  are,"  agreed  Robert;  "at  least,  some 
of  us  are." 

Patricia  took  the  compliment  as  blithely 
as  a  squirrel  takes  a  nut. 

"But  there's  no  one,"  she  observed,  "who 
looks  sweeter  than  Lena  Rysdael.  See,  she's 
119 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

over  there  with  Mr.  Harmon!  He  told  me 
he  'd  like  to  have  a  picture  painted  of  her  with 
the  birds  and  the  squirrels  round  her.  And 
it  would  make  a  lovely  picture,  would  n't 
it?" 

"  I  did  n't  think  I  'd  like  her,"  said  Robert ; 
"but  I  do.  Her  bark's  worse  than  her  bite." 

"Bark!"  exclaimed  Patricia.  "How  could 
she  bark?" 

She  laughed  gayly  as  she  looked  toward 
Lena,  who  leaned  against  a  spreading  birch 
tree,  her  face  lighted  with  a  happiness  that 
was  new  to  her. 

"She  is  n't  used  to  people,"  Patricia  com- 
mented, after  regarding  her  sympathetically. 
"We  haven't  been  sociable  enough  to  her 
here  in  Dalroy." 

"She  could  have  been  sociable  if  she  had 
wanted  to,  couldn't  she?"  asked  Robert. 
"It  was  just  as  easy  for  her  to  go  to  see  you 
as  for  you  to  come  to  see  her." 

"Oh,  mercy,  no!"  Patricia  declared.  "I'm 
one  of  those  persons  who  is  always  in  things. 
I  'm  never  left  out  —  at  least  I  never  feel  left 

120 


THE  SOFTENING  OF  NANCY 

out.  I  always  have  engagements,  duties,  and 
diversions.  It 's  my  disposition." 

Robert  laughingly  admitted  it.  From 
whom,  he  wondered,  did  she  inherit  her 
bright  outlook  on  life,  her  girlish  confidence, 
her  instinct  for  leadership  ?  Surely  not  from 
that  grotesque  old  man,  Captain  Quincannon, 
who,  since  his  setback  in  the  matter  of  the 
dam,  was  drinking  harder  than  ever  and  mak- 
ing a  place  of  carousal  out  of  his  house-boat ; 
but  perhaps,  after  all,  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  an  inheritance  of  mind  and  soul. 
Maybe  each  one  came  fresh  from  the  hand 
of  the  Creator. 

"This  certainly  does  seem  like  old  times 
to  me,"  Gordon  Curtis  told  Mrs.  Wardell. 
"Wherever  I  look  I  see  a  familiar  face.  To 
the  best  of  my  recollection  and  belief  you 
have  some  hard-fighting  clansmen  here,  but 
they  all  seem  calm  and  temporarily  under  a 
flag  of  truce.  How  did  you  manage  it  ?" 

"Well,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell,  laughing,  "in 
many  cases  I  did  n't  know  about  the  warfare 
or  who  was  the  enemy  of  whom.  That  made 
121 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

it  easy  for  me.  In  the  other  cases  I  accepted 
the  conflict  as  part  of  life's  activities  and  in- 
vited the  contestants." 

"Then  you  don't  object  to  war  between 
neighbors?" 

"It's  a  sign  of  life.  It  seems  to  me  merely 
to  indicate  that  amusement  and  achieve- 
ment are  at  a  low  ebb.  So  long  as  men  and 
women  live  and  breathe,  they  must  use  their 
energies  in  some  way.  They'll  prey  on  one 
another  if  they  can't  find  anything  else  to 
do.  From  the  vigor  of  the  quarrels  here  in 
Dalroy,  I  should  imagine  that  the  people  had 
a  good  deal  of  vitality.  It  would  be  worth 
while  to  direct  their  energies  in  the  right 
way,  would  n't  it?" 

"You  just  bet  it  would!"  cried  Gordon 
impulsively.  "I'd  like  to  help  do  that.  I  tell 
you,  I  'm  attached  to  this  little  old  town  of 
Dalroy,  Mrs.  Wardell.  Wylie  and  I  have 
about  made  up  our  minds  to  settle  here. 
We've  a  little  capital  to  invest,  and  we  want 
to  go  into  business  for  ourselves.  Wylie 's  a 
great  fellow  for  inventing  things,  and  he's 
122 


THE  SOFTENING  OF  NANCY 

patented  a  vacuum  cleaner  that  will  clean 
not  only  carpets  and  draperies,  but  books. 
That 's  only  one  of  a  dozen  of  things  Wylie 
has  thought  of.  I'm  not  up  to  little  tricks 
like  that,  but  I  can  make  a  pretty  close 
estimate  of  cost  production  and  selling  price. 
I'm  afraid  you'll  think  us  terribly  practical, 
commonplace  fellows." 

"It's  commonplace  to  be  impractical," 
said  Mrs.  Wardell,  with  spirit;  "but  practi- 
cality is  real  poetry,  to  my  mind.  I  like  to 
have  people  use  their  abilities,  and  take  what- 
ever talent  they  have  with  gratitude,  not 
wishing  for  something  quite  different." 

"Well,  Wylie  and  I  have  to  prove  our- 
selves, of  course.  We  may  not  strike  it  quite 
right  at  first,  but  we  shall  keep  busy  about 
something.  By  the  way,  we  must  n't  let  the 
picnic  drag,  must  we?  It  isn't  too  hot  to 
have  some  games,  is  it?  Let's  think  up  some 
good  games  and  get  every  one  to  play.  It 
will  ease  up  their  minds  —  act  as  a  mental 
lubricator." 

"And  then,"  said  Annie  Dee,  who  had  just 
123 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

come  up, "  it  will  be  fun  to  watch  the  lion 
and  the  lamb  caper  beneath  the  greenwood 
tree." 

So,  with  the  laughter  and  frolic  and  the 
singing  of  songs,  and  the  setting-out  of  the 
feast  and  the  eating  of  it,  there  was  really 
no  chance  to  remember  old  grudges.  Dalroy 
ceased  to  be  critical  and  jealous,  and  gave 
itself  up  to  a  childlike  and  care-free  mood. 

Finally  the  cool,  bright  day  waned,  as  the 
loveliest  day  must,  and  the  party,  weary  with 
their  nonsense  and  fooling,  their  tramping 
and  climbing,  turned  their  footsteps  home- 
ward. Their  hearts  were  perceptibly  light- 
ened and  warmed.  The  reaction  had  been 
complete.  For  once  nothing  hateful  or  ugly 
had  intruded  to  mar  a  Dalroy  occasion. 

"It  really  was  my  housewarming,"  Mrs. 
Wardell  explained  as  she  received  at  her 
own  gate  the  thanks  and  farewells  of  her 
guests,  "  but  my  house  was  too  small  to  hold 
all  my  friends ;  so  I  annexed  out-of-doors." 

"It's  been  one  of  the  happiest  days  of  my 
life,"  Lena  Rysdael  said.  "I  went  to  please 
124 


THE  SOFTENING  OF  NANCY 

others,  —  it 's  my  way  to  be  plain-spoken,  — 
but  next  time  I  shall  go  to  please  myself." 

The  guests  trooped  down  the  lane  among 
the  slanting  shadows  of  the  late  afternoon, 
and  Mrs.  Wardell  regarded  them  with  a 
smile  of  satisfaction.  As  she  turned,  still 
smiling,  toward  her  house,  she  saw  that  John 
Harmon  was  lingering  on  Lena  Rysdael's 
doorstep. 

Mrs.  WardelPs  own  young  folk  were  linger- 
ing with  their  friends  also.  Patricia,  Gordon, 
Wylie,  and  Delia  had  seated  themselves  on 
the  garden  benches  to  watch  the  sunset.  The 
pleasant  sound  of  their  voices  floated  in  to 
the  older  woman  as  she  lay  on  the  couch  and 
looked  about  the  pleasant,  homely  room. 

"I'm  not  a  woman,"  she  said  to  herself, 
"to  merge  my  life  in  that  of  others  —  not 
even  in  the  lives  of  my  own  children.  I  want 
my  own  life,  my  own  friends,  my  own  activi- 
ties. Still,  there's  a  certain  kind  of  joy  that 
they  must  feel  for  me,  and  that  I  must  get 
through  them." 

Truly  the  voices  that  floated  in  to  her,  the 
125 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

laughter,  the  snatches  of  song,  were  as  light 
as  thistledown.  Gradually  a  feeling  of  lone- 
liness began  to  steal  over  Mrs.  Wardell.  She 
tried  to  tell  herself  that  she  had  had  her 
youth ;  now  she  must  be  content  with  other 
things.  But  she  was  not  content,  and,  rising, 
she  called  the  young  people  almost  imperi- 
ously. 

"Light  the  candles,"  she  said  to  Rue. 
"They'll  not  be  too  warm,  and  the  old  rooms 
smile  in  the  candlelight.  Shall  we  have  sup- 
per ?  Hot  tea  ?  Good.  Put  the  teakettle  on, 
Annie  Dee.  Robert,  there's  a  joint  in  the 
refrigerator  that  you  might  slice.  No,  don't 
set  the  table.  This  is  a  buffet  repast,  and 
I'm  going  to  sit  still  and  be  served  by  all. 
Yes,  every  one  of  you  must  bring  me  some- 
thing." 

Laughing,  they  flew  to  do  her  bidding,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  their  supper  was  served. 
The  nest  of  tables  had  been  divided  into  its 
component  parts,  and  each  table  served  for 
two.  It  was  Delia  Sessions  who  sat  with  Mrs. 
Wardell. 

126 


THE  SOFTENING  OF  NANCY 

"I  ought  to  have  gone  straight  home  from 
the  picnic,  ought  n't  I ?"  she  said.  "But  the 
girls  urged  me  to  stay.  Oh,  it's  been  such  a 
happy  day!  Honestly,  Mrs.  Wardell,  my 
heart  felt  so  light  that  I  could  hardly  believe 
it  belonged  to  me." 

She  said  this  under  her  breath,  and  in  the 
same  low  tone  Mrs.  Wardell  murmured :  — 

"Dear  child,  I  hope  this  will  be  the  first 
of  many,  many  such." 

The  talk  became  general,  and  Delia,  con- 
tent with  her  happy  reverie,  did  not  speak 
until  Rue  leaned  over  her  as  she  passed  the 
cake.  Then  Delia,  looking  up,  smiled  in  ad- 
miration of  her  friend's  comeliness. 

"I  love  you  in  a  frock  like  that,"  she  said. 
"A  Dutch  neck  just  suits  you.  But  you 
ought  always  to  wear  your  little  gold  chain ; 
only  perhaps  it  would  n't  have  been  proper 
to  wear  that  at  a  picnic?" 

Rue  drew  in  her  breath  involuntarily,  and 
Mrs.  Wardell  as  involuntarily  threw  Rue  a 
warning  glance. 

"What's  this  about  Rue's  necklace?" 
127 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

asked  Patricia  gayly.  "Is  this  a  jewel  mys- 
tery?" 

"It's  been  mislaid,  that's  all,"  said  Annie 
Dee.  "It  will  turn  up  somewhere." 

"Well,  if  you  know  where  you  lost  it  and  if 
it  will  stay  there,  that's  all  right,"  said  Pa- 
tricia, laughing. 

"It  wasn't  on  the  street,  then?"  asked 
Gordon. 

"No  —  on  my  dresser  — " 

"Your  dresser?" 

Delia  looked  up,  startled. 

"The  day  you  went  to  the  wood  ?"  she  de- 
manded, her  eyes  widening.  "Why,  yes,  I 
saw  your  necklace  on  the  dressing-table  that 
day!  I  looked  at  it  and  put  it  back." 

"It's  a  pretty  little  thing,"  said  Rue,  as 
casually  as  she  could. 

"But  you  haven't  seen  it  since  then?" 
Delia  persisted. 

"Oh,  it's  fallen  down  somewhere  —  it  was 
such  a  little  thing!"  Rue  said  cheerfully. 

Delia  threw  a  look  of  appeal  at  Mrs.  War- 
dell. 

128 


THE   SOFTENING   OF  NANCY 

"It  will  turn  up  somewhere,"  Mrs.  War- 
dell  said  steadily.  "  Dear  me,  the  hot  tea  was 
just  what  we  all  needed,  wasn't  it?  Well, 
you  young  people  can  clear  the  things 
away,  and  I  '11  still  be  Lady  Sit-in-the-Chair. 
Delia,  why  go  home  to-night  ?  Stay  with  us, 
and  Mr.  Curtis  will  stop  at  your  aunt's  as 
he  is  going  by  and  let  her  know.  And  now 
for  some  more  music  before  we  part.  Patri- 
cia, my  dear,  will  you  play  the  accompan- 
iments?" 

They  had  only  Miss  Amrah's  little  old 
parlor  organ,  but  it  suited  well  the  grave, 
sweet  songs  that  they  chose  to  sing.  It  was 
as  if  they  were  all  trying  to  bring  peace  and 
harmony  into  that  kindly  little  room,  where, 
for  a  moment,  a  wild  tumult  had  stirred  — 
perhaps  was  even  now  stirring  in  the  heart  of 
the  dark,  thin  girl  who,  with  an  air  of  valiant 
determination,  sang  with  them,  although  her 
voice  was  a  little  too  shrill,  perhaps,  and  her 
eyes  were  a  bit  too  bright.  Because  of  the 
eyes  that  were  too  bright  and  the  voice  that 
was  too  shrill,  Mrs.  Wardell  kept  the  girl  be- 
129 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

side  her.  She  knew  that  to  Delia  it  seemed 
that  life  had  trapped  her  trickily,  and  that 
try  as  she  might  she  never  could  quite  free 
herself. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PROBLEMS 

BREAKFAST  was  a  brisk  affair  with  the 
Wardells  these  days,  for  Robert  was  always 
eager  in  the  morning.  He  seemed  like  an 
engine  with  full  steam  on,  snorting  and  puff- 
ing in  the  station  and  wild  to  be  off  down  the 
track. 

But  absorbed  as  he  was  in  his  own  affairs, 
he  could  not  fail  to  notice  on  the  morning 
after  the  picnic  the  white  face  of  Delia  Ses- 
sions. It  had  that  curious  pallor  that  a  dark 
face  alone  can  have,  and  with  the  deep  rings 
beneath  the  eyes  and  the  pathetic  droop  of 
the  mouth  it  would  have  caught  the  atten- 
tion of  even  a  more  absorbed  person  than 
Robert.  He  chanced  to  have  a  moment  alone 
with  her,  and  with  an  impulse  of  comrade- 
ship he  spoke  out  his  sympathy. 

"Things  going  wrong  with  you,  Delia?" 
he  asked. 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

Unable  to  speak,  she  nodded. 

"All  because  of  an  old  trouble?" 

Again  she  nodded. 

"Something  you  can't  possibly  help- 
an  old,  dead  trouble  dumped  on  you  and 
smothering  you  ? " 

"Yes!" 

"Then  why,  in  Heaven's  name,"  de- 
manded Robert,  "don't  you  get  away  from 
here?  Dalroy  isn't  giving  you  anything; 
that  old  notion  of  staying  round  and  living 
a  thing  down  when  a  whole  community  is 
determined  that  you  shall  go  into  your  grave 
with  your  trouble  still  hanging  over  you 
does  n't  appeal  to  me  a  little  bit.  Get  out  of 
the  place,  that 's  what  I  say  —  get  out  and 
begin  over.  A  fellow's  got  to  have  fresh  air 
and  room  —  and  a  girl  needs  the  same  things. 
This  air  is  n't  fresh  for  you,  and  they  have  n't 
given  you  room.  You  talk  to  mother  —  she 
'11  help  you." 

"Thank  you,  Robert,  I  shall,  I  certainly 
shall.  But,  Robert— " 

"Yes?" 

132 


PROBLEMS 

"You  believe  in  me?" 

"Of  course  I  do,  down  to  the  ground  and 
up  to  the  skies.  But  you  must  go  where 
you'll  never  have  to  ask  that  question  of 
any  one." 

"But  there  are  obstacles  —  Cousin  Jen- 
ny-" 

"Overcome  the  obstacles.  That's  what 
they're  for.  Good-bye,  Delia." 

The  girl  waited  until  he  had  said  good-bye 
to  his  family,  and  then  flew  to  Mrs.  Wardell. 
Her  eyes  were  hot  and  strained,  her  mouth 
was  quivering. 

"Now,"  she  said,  "you  must  let  me  begin 
to  look  for  the  necklace.  Oh,  just  give  me 
permission  to  look  everywhere!" 

She  stopped,  flaming  scarlet.  Perhaps 
Mrs.  Wardell  would  not  like  to  have  her  pry- 
ing into  everything  in  the  house,  she  who  — 

"I  can't  do  that,"  said  Mrs.  Wardell 
gravely.  "  It  reflects  on  your  dignity  and  on 
mine.  I  cannot  let  a  guest  whom  I  trust 
fight  to  clear  herself  of  such  a  suspicion  — • 
particularly  when  the  suspicion  does  not 
133 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

exist.  You  must  n't  ask  it  of  me,  Delia. 
Why,  the  girls  would  be  ashamed  to  look 
you  in  the  face!" 

"What  am  I  to  do,  then?"  demanded  the 
girl  nervously.  "Oh,  yes,  it  would  be  horrid, 
would  n't  it  ?  A  thing  no  lady  like  you  could 
allow?  But  what  good  does  that  do  me? 
Here  I  am,  with  you  wondering  about  me,  - 
in  spite  of  yourself,  you  're  wondering  about 
me !  Robert  says  I  ought  to  go  away  to  some 
new  place,  and  I  must!  I  must!  I  can't 
stand  this  any  longer!" 

She  suddenly  flung  her  arms  about  Mrs. 
Wardell's  neck  and  broke  into  passionate 
tears.  Mrs.  Wardell  had  no  objection  to  "a 
good  cry"  for  an  overwrought  girl,  but  this 
was  not  "a  good  cry."  It  was  a  tempest  of 
grief  and  shame.  Rue  and  Annie  Dee,  hear- 
ing it,  ran  into  the  room,  but  at  a  look  from 
their  mother  stole  away  again.  But  before 
the  morning  was  over,  the  four  of  them  had 
found  the  calmness  that  was  necessary  for  a 
frank  discussion  of  Delia's  situation.  They 
were  all  in  favor  of  a  change  for  her. 


PROBLEMS 

"A  person  has  no  right  to  stay  where 
she'll  be  crushed,  I  can  see  that,"  Delia 
agreed.  "To  live  on  here  merely  because 
of  an  idea  that  I  owed  it  to  Cousin  Jenny 
to  do  so  would  be  a  mistake,  would  n't  it  ? 
It  would  only  make  us  both  wretched." 

"The  first  duty  of  every  person,"  said  Mrs. 
Wardell,  "  is  to  do  the  finest  thing  by  his  own 
soul.  Sometimes  that  comes  through  sacri- 
fice, and  sometimes  it  comes  through  refus- 
ing to  be  sacrificed.  In  either  case,  the  soul 
marches  on." 

"The  only  question  remaining  is,  where 
Delia  can  march  to?"  Rue  said. 

"Why  not  to  Chicago  ?"  asked  Annie  Dee. 

"To  do  what?"  persisted  Rue. 

"What  can  you  do,  Delia,  —  sing,  dance, 
teach,  paint,  write,  typewrite,  keep  books, 
sew — " 

"There  you  arei"  Delia  interrupted.  "I 
can  do  embroidering  and  all  kinds  of  fine 
hand  sewing.  It's  a  talent  with  me  —  one  of 
the  things  I  inherited."  She  made  a  queer 
little  face,  half  tender,  half  angry.  "And  do 
135 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

you  know,  only  the  other  day  Pat  was  telling 
me  that  Miss  Torrey  knew  of  a  settlement 
house  in  Chicago  where  they  would  pay  well 
to  have  sewing  of  that  sort  taught  to  the 
girls.  Do  you  suppose  she  was  trying  to 
tempt  me  to  leave  Dalroy  ?  Of  course  it  may 
be  too  late  for  me  to  get  the  position." 

"We'll  find  out  all  about  it,"  said  Mrs. 
Wardell.  "But  whether  you  get  the  par- 
ticular position  or  not,  you'll  get  some- 
thing. I  should  like  that  settlement  work  for 
you  because  it  probably  would  give  you  a 
home." 

Rue  had  her  own  problems  these  days. 
September  was  at  hand,  and  that  meant  that 
she  was  to  take  charge  of  her  school.  She  had 
decided  on  the  one  in  Dubuque,  Iowa,  be- 
cause it  was  nearer  home  than  the  one  offered 
her  in  Arizona. 

"I  don't  want  to  be  a  baby,"  she  said  to 
Patricia,  "but  I  certainly  do  dread  leaving 
home.  Here's  funny  little  Annie  Dee  work- 
ing away  on  her  poems  and  actually  making 
136 


PROBLEMS 

a  good  deal  of  money  out  of  them.  She  's  been 
doing  a  lot  for  a  large  advertising  agency,  and 
they've  paid  her  well.  It  seems  actually  silly 
to  make  a  living  as  easily  as  that,  does  n't  it  ? 
She  just  goes  humming  and  dancing  round 
the  house,  working  up  a  rhythm,  as  she  puts 
it,  and  the  first  thing  we  know  she  has  a 
bunch  of  verses  finished  and  in  the  mail.  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  anything  so  ridiculous?" 

"I  never  did!"  Patricia  agreed.  "I  always 
said  that  this  was  an  astounding  world. 
Some  odd  little  talent  will  get  ahead  of  the 
solidest  worth.  In  speaking  of  solid  worth  I 
refer,  Rue,  to  the  qualities  possessed  by  such 
persons  as  you  and  me.  By  odd  little  talents, 
I  mean"  —  and  here  she  raised  her  voice  for 
the  benefit  of  Annie  Dee  —  "such  flimsy 
wits  as  those  by  which  your  unreflecting  sis- 
ter cajoles  dollars  from  the  pockets  of  trust- 
ing business  men." 

Annie  Dee's  derisive  giggle  was  heard,  but 
she  did  not  permit  herself  to  be  drawn  into  the 
conversation,  for  she  was  at  that  very  mo- 
ment concocting  some  verses  describing  how 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

certain  jointed  dolls  were  like  your  own  little 
sister  or  your  own  little  brother.  Annie  Dee's 
verses  were,  indeed,  very  much  on  her  mind. 
If  she  awoke  early,  she  seized  her  pencil  and 
paper,  which  she  always  kept  beside  her  bed, 
and  tried  experiments  in  blithe  rhythm  and 
amazing  rhyme. 

"  I  'm  the  one  who  must  stay  at  home  with 
mother,"  she  decided,  "  so  it 's  up  to  me  to 
develop  home  talent." 

She  was  quite  aware  of  her  impulsiveness, 
and  she  agreed  with  her  family  that  home  was 
the  place  for  her. 

"I  have  to  be  kept  under  restraint,"  she 
said  once  to  Wylie  Curtis.  "I  shall  never 
leave  mother  till  I  can  do  so  in  the  care  of 
a  solemn  husband,  preferably  a  deacon,  — 
with  whom  I  shall  be  perfectly  miserable,  but 
who  will  keep  me  in  order." 

"Why  not  marry  a  policeman  and  be  done 
with  it?" 

"Policemen  are  nice,"  Annie  Dee  replied 
with  an  air  of  innocent  pleasure.    "I'm  so 
glad  you  thought  of  that!" 
138 


PROBLEMS 

Rue's  trunks  were  all  packed,  when  the  un- 
expected happened.  One  of  the  primary 
teachers  in  the  Dalroy  school  was  engaged 
to  be  married  to  a  young  man  in  the  imple- 
ment business ;  he  was  suddenly  transferred 
to  Albuquerque  and  insisted  on  taking  his 
sweetheart  with  him.  A  hasty  marriage  was 
the  consequence;  and  Pat  fled  to  the  War- 
dells,  carrying  the  first  rumor  of  it. 

"  I  never  was  so  delighted  to  hear  of  a  wed- 
ding in  my  life !  And  I  always  like  to  hear  of 
weddings.  Rue,  you  must  put  in  an  applica- 
tion at  once  for  the  vacancy.  Then  you  can 
stay  here  with  your  own  fascinating  family 
and  your  fond  friends." 

"Why  should  the  Board  of  Education  give 
me  the  place?"  demanded  Rue.  "And  if 
they  did,  there 's  my  Iowa  job !  It 's  too  late 
to  throw  that  up.  I  wish  you  had  n't  upset 
me,  Pat,  by  telling  me  about  it." 

"Leave  it  all  to  me!"  Pat  cried. 

And  surely  enough,  Patricia  was  equal  to 
her  task.  A  few  telegrams  settled  the  Du- 
buque  matter;  and  Rue  received  her  permis- 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

sion  to  take  charge  of  part  of  the  first-grade 
pupils  in  the  Dalroy  school. 

"So  unpack  your  trunks,  honey  bird," 
said  Annie  Dee,  "and  be  happy  with  us. 
Are  n't  we  the  lucky  Wardells  ?  Of  course 
maybe  you  can  find  something  to  worry 
about,  because  you  carry  round  a  sort  of 
magnifying  glass  made  for  the  enlargement 
of  worries,  but  so  far  as  I  can  see  with  my 
two  naked  eyes  there  is  n't  a  cloud  on  the 
Wardell  destiny." 

Then,  after  a  moment,  she  added :  — 

"The  Curtis  boys  have  just  about  de- 
cided to  stay  in  Dalroy." 

Rue  neglected  to  give  the  ironic  chuckle 
that  might  have  been  expected  to  follow  that 
remark. 

Trouble,  however,  as  a  great  many  have 
observed,  is  quick  to  follow  upon  just  such 
vainglorious  boasting;  and  the  trouble  that 
came,  unexpectedly  as  an  earthquake,  not 
only  shook  the  contentment  of  the  Wardells 
to  its  foundation,  but  brought  catastrophe  to 
others. 

140 


PROBLEMS 

The  season  had  been  an  unusually  rainy 
one,  and  a  number  of  small  floods  caused  by 
cloudbursts  and  long  continuous  rains  had 
hindered  work  upon  the  dam.  For  one  reason 
and  another  the  river  carried  a  great  deal  of 
drift,  and  this  had  on  several  occasions  made 
such  a  conglomerate  mass  at  the  sluices  that 
the  vents  had  been  almost  completely  closed. 
The  water  had  risen  at  such  a  rate  as  to 
threaten  the  green  concrete  work. 

However,  the  difficulty  was  not  regarded 
as  serious  until  a  heavy  rain  stopped  work  on 
the  dam  for  three  days.  Robert's  thought 
early  and  late  had  been  for  the  sluices,  and 
his  men  had  worked  like  Trojans  to  keep 
them  clear;  but  in  spite  of  their  efforts  they 
had  failed.  Both  Robert  and  Mr.  Harmon 
trembled  for  their  still  unhardened  cement. 

The  rising  waters  began  to  inundate  the 
low  lands  that  Captain  Quincannon  had 
owned,  and  the  sight  of  the  flooded  land 
exasperated  him  as  much  as  if  they  were  still 
his  own. 

The  money  that  he  had  received  for  the 
141 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

land  from  Mr.  Harmon  he  had  already  spent 
in  wild  and  riotous  nights  with  his  boon  com- 
panions, and  there  were  hours  when  he  per- 
suaded himself  that  he  never  had  been  paid 
anything  for  his  property.  At  such  moments, 
breaking  into  wild  eloquence,  he  explained  to 
whoever  would  listen  that  the  valuable  land 
had  been  wrested  from  him  by  a  tyrant. 

Dalroy  was  now  amused  and  now  annoyed 
at  those  outbreaks.  Quincannon,  they  all 
agreed,  had  long  been  looking  for  a  grievance, 
and  was  delighted  at  having  found  one  at  last. 

Robert,  jaded  with  a  long  and  anxious 
day,  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  haggard  old 
riverman  watching  the  rising  waters  from 
the  height  above  the  dam.  The  old  man 
frowned  from  under  his  shaggy  gray  brows 
at  the  young  engineer,  who  nodded  absent- 
mindedly  and  strode  on  toward  home. 

A  violent  wind  had  risen  during  the  after- 
noon and  dark  clouds,  with  saffron-hued 
edges,  had  gathered  in  the  west. 

"Another  rainfall  is  coming,"  said  Robert 
to  Mr.  Harmon,  whom  he  had  overtaken  on 
142 


PROBLEMS 

the  street,  "and  it  won't  be  safe  for  the  men 
to  work  on  the  dam." 

"The  whole  trouble  seems  superfluous  to 
me,"  said  John  Harmon  testily. 

"Well,  we  could  n't  keep  the  rain  off, 
could  we?  Floods  don't  usually  come  until 
later  in  the  month;  but  they're  here,  and  I 
don't  see  how  any  one  can  be  blamed." 

"They  can  be  blamed  for  not  keeping  the 
sluices  clear." 

"Don't  you  think  we've  tried?"  Robert 
asked.  "The  men  have  been  at  it  all  day." 

The  two  walked  on  in  silence. 

"Oh,  hang  it!"  said  Mr.  Harmon  at  last. 
"  I  feel  as  cross  as  a  bear  with  a  sore  head ! 
I  know  you've  done  your  best,  Bob." 

"I'm  going  back  to  the  works  after  sup- 
per," said  Robert.  "Come  up  to  supper  with 
me  and  we'll  talk  things  over.  A  dozen  of 
the  men  are  going  to  meet  me  on  the  bank  at 
about  seven  with  something  they've  rigged 
up  with  chains  and  hooks.  I  believe  we'll 
have  the  sluices  cleared  by  midnight." 

"If  only  the  rain  will  hold  off,  I  dare  say 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

we'll  be  all  right,"  said  Mr.  Harmon;  "but 
it  certainly  does  look  threatening,  Bobbie." 

There  was  always  welcome  and  comfort  to 
be  found  at  the  Wardell  Cottage,  it  seemed. 
Mrs.  Wardell  had  a  delicious  supper,  and 
Rue  and  Annie  Dee  served  it  with  quiet 
cheerfulness,  quite  aware  that  this  was  not 
the  hour  for  idle  chatter. 

At  sunset  the  air  was  lighted  with  a  won- 
derful glow,  made  all  the  more  remarkable 
by  the  black  cloud  that  hung  over  the 
zenith  and  that  moved  very  slowly  toward 
the  east. 

An  indescribable  feeling  of  apprehension 
crept  upon  the  group  round  the  supper  table, 
and  when  the  telephone  bell  rang  sharply, 
all  sprang  to  their  feet.  It  was  Robert  who 
answered  the  call,  and  the  others  heard  him 
say:  "Is  it  you,  Patricia?  I  can't  hear  —  the 
connection  seems  so  bad.  Can't  you  speak 
louder?" 

He  listened  a  moment,  and  then,  dropping 
the  receiver,  turned  to  his  family. 

"There's  something  the  matter,"  he  said 
144 


PROBLEMS 

shortly.   "  Patricia  seems  to  want  me,  but  I 
could  n't  make  out  where  she  was." 

"At  home,  I  should  suppose,  on  a  day  like 
this,"  said  Rue. 

"  Somehow,  I  don't  think  she  is.  I  'm  going 
to  find  her.  The  wires  are  all  knocked  out 
to-day;  I  wonder  she  got  us  at  all." 

"But  ought  you  to  go  out,  Robert?" 
asked  his  mother  anxiously.  "I  feel  as  if 
something  were  going  to  happen.  I  never  saw 
a  stranger  day." 

"I've  got  to  go,  mother,"  Robert  cried. 
"  Pat  needs  me  —  there's  something  wrong." 

He  had  been  gone  fifteen  minutes,  perhaps, 
and  they  had  not  yet  lighted  the  lamps,  when 
there  came  a  convulsion  of  earth  and  air  that 
rocked  the  house  and  sucked  at  the  win- 
dows as  if  it  would  have  drawn  them  out.  For 
a  moment  the  Wardells  and  their  guest 
gasped;  then  Mrs.  Wardell  cried:  — 

"Robert!" 

"Why  Robert?"  demanded  Rue. 

"The  dam!"  Mrs.  Wardell  managed  to 
articulate. 

145 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"Of  course!"  shouted  John  Harmon.  "It's 
the  dam!  That's  what  Pat  was  trying  to 
say  —  something  was  being  done  to  the 
dam!" 

He  was  off  without  his  hat,  running 
through  that  strange  saffron-hued  gloom. 

"Oh,  mother,  we  can't  stay  here!"  cried 
Annie  Dee.  "We  must  go,  too." 

Yes,  decidedly,  they  must  go;  and  every 
one  in  Dalroy,  they  soon  found,  was  going. 
In  the  wild,  yellow-hued  dusk  they  panted 
along  the  streets ;  all  faces  were  turned  river- 
ward.  The  young  doctor  sped  past  with  his 
medicine  case  in  his  hand;  the  sheriff  ran 
down  the  middle  of  the  street,  followed  by 
a  rout  of  boys;  and  along  the  sidewalks 
streamed  the  men  and  women,  anxious, 
curious,  frightened.  It  had  begun  to  thunder 
ominously,  but  no  one  heeded  that  until  a 
terrific  crash,  heralded  by  a  spectacular  flash 
of  lightning,  emptied  the  black  cloud  of  its 
contents.  In  a  moment  a  deluge  of  water 
was  upon  them,  and  all  except  the  most 
determined  were  driven  to  shelter. 
146 


PROBLEMS 

Robert  had  raced  townward,  borne  on  by 
the  conviction  that  somewhere  Patricia  was 
in  distress  and  had  called  him.  He  did  not 
think  she  was  at  home,  yet  against  his  in- 
stinct he  went  there.  The  Thwait  house  was 
dark  except  for  a  light  at  the  far  end  of  the 
wide  hallway,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  his 
summons  would  never  be  answered.  It  never 
was,  in  fact,  for  while  he  stood  on  the  door- 
step there  came  the  shock  of  earth  and  air 
that  sent  all  the  town  from  its  doors.  Robert 
called  loudly  for  Patricia,  and  from  some- 
where in  the  house  the  voice  of  the  cook 
wailed :  — 

"No,  no,  Miss  Patricia  ain't  here!  I  don't 
know  where  she  is,  and  what  does  it  matter 
if  it 's  the  end  of  the  world  that 's  come  ?" 

Robert  answered  incoherently,  for  an  idea 
had  flashed  into  his  mind.  His  dam!  His 
fine,  effective,  workmanlike  dam,  the  first 
large  achievement  of  his  skill  —  ruined !  He 
felt  sure  of  it.  And  Patricia?  Where  was 
she?  What  could  she  have  to  do  with  the 
dam  and  the  destruction  of  it  ?  Yet  her  voice, 
H7 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

so  faint  and  broken,  so  distressed  and  frantic ! 
With  his  heart  pounding  at  his  side,  Robert 
sped  on,  outdistancing  all  the  others. 

"There  he  goes!"  the  people  said  to  one 
another.  "That's  Wardell!  I  guess  he  won't 
find  much  of  his  dam  left  to  look  at." 

That  great  flash  of  lightning  showed 
Robert  the  Curtis  boys,  running  close  upon 
his  heels,  and  the  sight  of  them,  so  loyal,  so 
efficient,  so  daring,  comforted  him. 

A  second  more  and  the  cloud  seemed  to 
empty  itself  upon  them;  but  Robert  knew 
that  those  two  would  not  turn  back.  He  was 
aware  that  they  were  near  him  as  he  stood  for 
a  moment  upon  the  bank  and,  through  the 
curtain  of  rain,  discerned  the  rushing  waters 
and  heard  the  roar  that  confirmed  his  worst 
fears  for  the  dam.  But  Pat  —  Pat  —  Pat! 
Where  was  she  ?  She  had  been  there  —  had 
wished  to  warn  him!  An  idea  seized  upon 
Robert  and  became  a  conviction.  The  cabin, 
farther  downstream  than  the  dam,  stood  in 
the  very  sweep  of  the  flood. 

Robert  shouted  to  the  brothers,  "I'm 
148 


PROBLEMS 

going  to  the  captain's  cabin!    I'm  afraid 
there's  trouble  there!"  and  dashed  away. 

The  others  paused  for  a  moment  to  speak 
to  Mr.  Harmon,  who  had  come  running  up. 
They  saw  Mrs.  Wardell  and  her  daughter 
and  implored  them  to  go  back. 

"What  good  can  you  do  here?"  they  de- 
manded of  the  women. 

"Where's  Robert?"  Rue  cried. 

Where  was  Robert,  indeed  ?  He  had  raced 
along  the  bank  as  far  as  the  Quincannon 
cabin,  had  crossed  the  little  bridge,  mounted 
the  shaking  stairs  and  for  the  first  time  stood 
in  the  shiplike  interior  of  the  riverman's 
house.  Every  pane  of  glass  in  the  windows 
had  been  shattered  by  the  explosion  and  the 
rain  was  beating  in  from  the  west. 

A  booming  sound  warned  him  that  the 
break  in  the  dam  was  widening;  indeed,  the 
house,  already  loosened  from  its  foundations 
by  the  explosion,  began  to  slip  along  its 
piles. 

"It's  going!"  shouted  Robert.  "Pat!  Pat! 
Are  you  here?" 

149 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

He  pushed  past  the  cluttered  furniture 
into  the  farther  room,  and  stumbled  against 
something  that  lay  across  a  lounge.  Was  it 
Captain  Quincannon,  stunned  by  the  explo- 
sion ?  No,  Robert  knew  that  slender  form  - 
knew  that  great  fall  of  loosened  dark  hair. 
At  that  moment  she  seemed  to  Robert  to  be- 
long to  no  one  except  himself.  She  was  his 
Pat  —  his  daring,  loyal  Pat,  come  somehow 
to  terrible  grief. 

The  house  rocked  sickeningly.  There  were 
only  seconds  to  be  reckoned  with.  Robert 
lifted  the  unconscious  girl  and  bore  her  to  the 
outer  door,  which  had  swung  to.  Resting  his 
burden  against  the  wall,  he  tried  desperately 
with  one  hand  to  open  it.  It  would  not  open. 

Suddenly  there  came  to  him  that  calmness 
that  lies  at  the  heart  of  terror.  He  laid 
Patricia  carefully  on  the  floor  and  tried  the 
door  with  both  hands. 

"It  opened  inward,"  he  said  aloud  quietly. 
"I  remember  it  opened  inward/' 

With  that,  he  ran  his  hands  along  the  upper 
casing.   Sure  enough,  the  trouble  lay  there. 
150 


PROBLEMS 

The  casing,  wrenched  from  its  joining,  sagged 
over  the  door.  Tearing  his  hands  on  the 
nails,  Robert  rent  it  loose.  At  last  he  was 
free. 

But  the  way  was  no  longer  clear;  part  of 
the  bridge  was  gone.  It  was  the  second  for 
action  —  even  if  unavailing ;  but  all  his  pur- 
poseful life  and  eager  manhood  would  have 
gone  for  nothing  if  he  had  not  taken  his 
chance.  Gathering  Patricia  close,  he  leaped 
shoreward  amid  the  wash  of  the  racing  river 
and  the  tumult  of  the  downpouring  rain. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    QUINCANNONS 

THE  larger  part  of  the  crowd  had  gathered 
farther  upstream,  yet  many  people  saw  the 
cabin  swing  loose  from  its  foundations  and 
the  dark  figures  leap  into  the  water.  Several 
men,  Gordon  and  Wylie  Curtis  among  them, 
sprang  to  the  river-bank,  ready  to  do  what 
they  could. 

Of  all  the  crowd,  only  the  Curtis  brothers 
knew  positively  that  one  of  those  figures  was 
Robert's  and  guessed  that  the  other  was 
Patricia's.  While  the  rescuers  stood,  hesitat- 
ing, uncertain  how  to  help,  Gordon  Curtis 
had  an  inspiration.  Kicking  off  his  low  shoes 
and  flinging  his  coat  from  him,  he  leaped 
down  the  bank,  ran  up  the  river  to  the  first  of 
the  piers,  and  loosed  a  stanch,  narrow  raft 
made  of  two  beams  bound  together  with  ropes. 
All  he  needed  was  an  oar,  and  as  he  looked 
about  him  Wylie  thrust  one  into  his  hand. 
152 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

Above  the  roar  of  waters  he  heard  other 
noises  —  voices  cheering  him  on,  other  voices 
begging  him  not  to  go ;  but  he  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  them.  He  mounted  his  raft  as  you 
would  mount  a  steed  and,  letting  it  lift  with 
the  current,  shot  down  the  river.  The  rush- 
ing water  carried  him  swiftly  among  the  piles 
on  which  had  rested  the  Quincannon  cabin. 
There  it  seemed  that  he  certainly  would  be 
unseated ;  but  steering  skillfully  with  his  oar, 
he  managed  to  get  free  of  the  piers.  Outward 
he  sped,  seeming  almost  to  fly  along  the  sur- 
face of  the  dark  waters,  until  presently  he 
overtook  Robert  and  Patricia. 

Robert  held  the  girl  with  his  left  arm,  and 
with  his  right  hand  clung  desperately  to  the 
prow  of  a  little  skiff,  which  threatened  each 
moment  to  break  its  moorings. 

Gordon  had  come  upon  Robert  and  Pa- 
tricia much  sooner  than  he  expected,  and  too 
late  he  realized  that  he  would  probably  shoot 
by  them.  He  dug  his  oar  viciously  into  the 
water  in  a  vain  effort  to  stop  himself;  then, 
just  as  he  was  going  by,  he  clutched  with  one 
'53 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

hand  at  the  skiff.  The  added  strain  was  too 
much  for  the  fastenings  of  the  boat.  They 
broke,  and  Robert,  still  keeping  fast  hold  of 
Patricia,  was  submerged  by  a  dark,  white- 
tipped  wave. 

Had  Gordon's  craft  been  capable  of  cap- 
sizing, he  could  never  have  done  what  he  did ; 
but  as  it  was,  on  the  instant  that  Robert 
emerged  from  beneath  the  wave  he  grasped 
him  by  the  arm,  and  half  dragging  him,  half 
swinging  the  raft,  brought  them  together. 

"  Hang  on ! "  he  roared.  "  Hang  on,  Bob ! " 

Instinctively  Robert  did  as  Gordon  or- 
dered. As  for  his  hold  of  Patricia,  he  had 
not  for  a  moment  relaxed  it. 

The  raft  was  not  riding  so  well  now.  It 
staggered,  lurched,  sidled,  while  Gordon, 
working  desperately  with  his  one  oar,  labored 
toward  the  bank.  He  had  a  confused  impres- 
sion that  a  crowd  was  running  along  the 
shore,  cheering  him  with  its  shouts  and  watch- 
ing for  a  chance  to  help  him.  And  the  chance 
came !  It  was  a  fleeting  one,  indeed,  and  had 
to  be  seized  as  the  craft  shot  past  the  end  of 
i54 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

a  short  pier,  which  itself  was  in  danger  of 
being  swept  away ;  but  by  lying  flat  and  reach- 
ing down  the  men  hoped  to  grasp  the  raft 
and  hold  it.  Meanwhile,  other  men  farther 
down  the  stream  ran  into  the  water  and  made 
a  living  chain  of  themselves  in  order  to  catch 
the  bodies  should  any  be  hurled  from  the 
raft. 

No  one  was  ever  quite  sure  what  hap- 
pened next;  certainly  no  two  ever  told  the 
same  story.  With  a  boat-hook  the  men  on 
the  pier  held  Gordon's  raft  for  one  second, 
while  Gordon,  aiding  their  efforts,  swung  it 
shoreward.  A  moment  later  a  dozen  hands 
grasped  it  and  hung  to  it.  The  little  pier 
began  to  break  now  under  the  hammering  of 
the  waves  and  the  weight  of  the  men,  but  it 
held  for  a  few  precious  moments;  and  then 
the  men  who  had  made  a  living  catch-net  of 
themselves  began  to  close  in,  and  presently 
all  were  safe  on  shore. 

Rue,  standing  drenched  on  the  bank,  saw 
Gordon  come  walking  toward  her.  The  rain 
had  suddenly  ceased,  and  the  high  arc-lights, 
155 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

swinging  on  their  cables,  lighted  up  the 
thronged  embankment. 

"How  wonderful  you  have  been!"  she 
cried.  "Oh,  Gordon,  is  Bob  all  right?  And 
Pat?" 

"Bob's  fit  as  a  fiddle!"  he  cried  joyously. 
"Wasn't  that  a  glorious  fight  he  put  up? 
Only  went  under  once,  and  took  that  like  a 
fish.  Only  Pat  —  I'm  not  so  sure!" 

"You  don't  mean  she's — " 

"There's  the  doctor!  We'll  go  and  stand 
near,"  said  Gordon.  "I  think  it's  the  shock 
she  is  suffering  from,  not  drowning." 

"  I  Ve  got  to  go  to  her,  Gordon ! "  Rue  cried 
with  sudden  decision,  and  sped  from  him  to 
where  Patricia  lay  on  the  bank. 

All  about  her  were  her  neighbors,  moved 
to  speechlessness  by  the  tragic  sight  before 
them.  Rue  turned  sick  as  she  watched  the 
young  doctor  working  feverishly  over  Pa- 
tricia, and  sank  weakly  down  on  the  bank. 
A  dark  reverie  fell  upon  her  until,  after  a 
while,  the  whir  of  a  motor  roused  her. 

"But  I  can't  go  home,"  she  heard  her 
156 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

brother  saying,  "until  I  know  how  Miss 
Quincannon  is.  I  Ve  a  right  to  know,  have 
n't  I?" 

"You  bet  you  have!"  said  the  hearty 
voice  of  John  Harmon.  "You  worked  hard 
enough  to  save  her,  Bob.  Let  him  stay, 
boys." 

Just  then  Annie  Dee  dashed  up.  "She's 
all  right!  She's  all  right!  The  doctor  says 
she 's  coming  to.  Oh,  are  n't  you  thankful  ? 
Bobbie,  Bobbie,  I  'm  so  glad  I  'm  related  to 
you!" 

"Then  get  in  here  with  me,"  said  her 
brother,  holding  out  his  trembling  hand  to 
her.  "  Mother's  going  to  stay  with  Patricia. 
Mrs.  Thwait  is  away,  and  mother  will  stay 
all  night.  Rue,  are  n't  you  coming  home, 
too?" 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Rue  vaguely.  "I 
think,  perhaps,  that  I'd  rather  wait  here 
with  mother  and  see  Patricia  safe  home." 

She  did  not  know  why  she  felt  such  an  over- 
whelming desire  to  see  Patricia  safe  away 
from  that  place  of  gray  waters  and  protected 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

from  other,  darker  dangers.  She  could  not 
have  said  what  those  dangers  were,  but  as 
she  had  sat  thinking  there  on  the  bank,  cer- 
tain terrible  surmises  had  forced  themselves 
upon  her. 

Why  had  the  dam  been  blown  up  ?  Who 
could  have  profited  by  its  destruction  ?  Obvi- 
ously, no  one.  Then  it  had  been  destroyed  by 
some  one  who  had  a  grudge  against  the  dam 
and  the  builder  of  it.  And  who  could  have 
any  such  grudge  except  Captain  Quincan- 
non  ?  He  had  been  dissatisfied  with  the  price 
paid  for  his  lands,  and  in  his  drunken  resent- 
ment had  seemed  to  forget  or  ignore  the  fact 
that  they  were  not  still  his. 

The  more  Rue  thought,  the  more  convinced 
she  became  that  Captain  Quincannon  had 
blown  up  the  dam.  Word  of  his  intention 
must  have  reached  Patricia,  and  she  had 
sped  to  the  house-boat  to  prevent  him;  she 
had  found  him  gone,  and  had  telephoned  to 
Robert  in  the  hope,  no  doubt,  that  he  could 
do  what  she  could  not.  Then  the  explosion 
had  knocked  her  insensible.  As  for  Captain 
158 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

Quincannon,  where  was  he?  That  was  the 
question  that  many  would  presently  be  ask- 
ing —  the  bluff  sheriff  and  John  Harmon, 
and  all  those  citizens  who  represented  law 
and  order. 

Even  at  that  minute  she  could  see  the 
sheriff  talking  to  a  group  of  men  of  whom 
John  Harmon  was  one.  Harmon  was  kind, 
but  he  was  not  meek.  He  would  try  to  pun- 
ish the  man  who  had  wantonly  destroyed 
thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  property  and 
who  had  set  back  his  plans  for  months,  per- 
haps upset  them  entirely. 

They  were  putting  Patricia  into  an  auto- 
mobile now,  and  Mrs.  Wardell  was  getting 
in  beside  her. 

"May  I  come,  too,  mother?"  Rue  asked. 
"  It  seems  as  if  I  had  to  see  Pat  all  comfort- 
able and  safe  in  her  own  bed.  Oh,  I'll  never 
be  able  to  forget  how  she  looked!" 

Mrs.  Wardell  turned  to  smile  reassuringly 
into  her  daughter's  pale  face.  "You  shall  see 
her  to-morrow,"  she  said  quietly.  "Go  home 
now  with  your  brother.  He  may  need  you." 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

Something  in  the  tone  seemed  to  carry 
rebuke,  and  Rue  flushed.  The  automobile 
with  Robert  and  Annie  Dee  in  it  had  already 
left;  so  without  a  word  Rue  turned  and 
trudged  through  the  town,  avoiding  the 
main  streets  and  desiring  only  to  reach  her 
home  and  put  her  weary  head  on  her  pillow. 
Gordon  Curtis  would  have  been  watching 
for  her,  she  knew,  had  not  he  too  been  taken 
home. 

Lights  were  shining  through  the  cottage 
windows  when  she  reached  home,  and  she 
could  hear  the  voices  of  Bob  and  Annie  Dee 
within. 

"  I  hope  to  Heaven,"  she  heard  her  brother 
saying  fervently,  "that,  if  he's  the  man  who 
did  it,  he's  gone  down  with  the  flood  and 
been  drowned ;  for  if  he 's  living,  and  I  know 
anything  about  John  Harmon,  he'll  go  to  the 
penitentiary  as  sure  as  fate." 

"Oh,  it  would  kill  Pat,  it  would  kill  her!" 

"See  here,  sis,"  Robert  went  on.  "You 
stick  by  Pat,  will  you  ?  I  want  you  to  do  me 
the  greatest  favor  you  ever  did.  I  want  you 
1 60 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

to  pick  Pat  out  of  all  the  world  to  be  your 
friend.  I  don't  know  what  she  thinks  of  me, 
or  whether  I'm  the  person  she'd  choose  to 
stand  by  her  at  a  time  like  this,  but  I'm 
going  to  do  it  anyway,  and  I  want  you  to 
help." 

"Oh,  you  may  be  sure  of  that!"  Annie  Dee 
answered.  "Anyway,  I'd  be  standing  by  on 
my  own  account !  I  like  being  a  friend  twice 
as  much  when  there 's  something  to  do." 

"  I  wish  I  could  say  things  the  way  Annie 
Dee  does,"  thought  Rue. 

She  entered  the  room  softly,  burdened  with 
sorrows,  and  went  on  to  Robert's  room  to 
make  his  bed  ready  for  him.  Then  she  brought 
him  a  bowl  of  bread  and  milk. 

"You'll  need  this,"  she  said  softly,  "after 
all  your  — *  your  adventures." 

She  did  not  quite  get  out  the  last  words. 
The  menace  and  anguish  of  the  night  had 
been  too  much  for  her,  and  tears  came  in  a 
gush,  with  sobs  that  shook  her  to  the  center  of 
her  being.  The  others  comforted  and  scolded 
her,  and  Rue  crept  to  her  bed  at  last,  hu- 
161 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

miliated  and  chastened.  She  had  meant  to 
be  a  help  and  she  had  only  been  a  trouble, 
after  all. 

"Oh,  Annie  Dee,"  she  cried  when  the  two 
were  in  their  outdoor  cots  with  the  soft 
night  about  them, "  don't  go  back  on  me,  will 
you?" 

"Why  in  the  name  of  the  sacred  gods  of 
Egypt  should  I  go  back  on  my  own  sister?" 

"I'm  such  a  dub!  I  can't  act  at  the  right 
moment,  I  can't  say  the  things  I  think,  and 
I  'm  always  getting  in  the  way." 

"What's  the  use  of  thinking  about  your- 
self when  there  are  so  many  other  things  to 
think  about?"  demanded  Annie  Dee.  "You 
5re  always  trying  to  do  right,  Rue,  and  then 
wondering  whether  you  have.  Don't  stop  to 
think!  Rip  ahead  and  do  the  first  thing  that 
comes  to  you.  You  can  repent  afterwards  if 
necessary.  It's  no  trouble  to  repent.  I  put  in 
half  my  time  doing  it.  The  only  things  that 
are  the  matter  with  you,  darling  sis,  are  hesi- 
tation, meditation,  introspection,  and  sancti- 
fication." 

162 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

Rue  laughed  beneath  her  bedclothes.  "I 
guess  you're  right,  Annie  Dee.  I'll  try  to 
remember.  Write  it  out  for  me  in  the  morn- 
ing and  I  '11  pin  it  above  my  dresser." 

"No,  you  won't!"  protested  Annie  Dee. 
"  For  if  you  do,  I  '11  keep  thinking  that  those 
are  my  faults  and  I  '11  be  avoiding  them.  It 
would  n't  do  at  all  to  get  mixed  up  like  that." 
.  "And  what  are  your  faults,  Mr.  Bones?" 

"  Precipitation,  acceleration,  flirtation,  and 
desperation." 

Rue  chuckled  appreciatively,  and  Annie 
Dee,  satisfied  that  her  sister's  storm  of  un- 
happiness  had  passed,  laid  her  soft  cheek  upon 
her  folded  hands  and  slid,  rather  than  sank, 
into  the  gray  regions  of  sleep.  But  Rue  lay 
awake  half  the  night,  anxious  for  many 
things.  She  was  glad  when  the  morning  came 
and  she  could  be  up  and  about  the  affairs  of 
the  house.  It  was  almost  noon  before  Mrs. 
Wardell  returned. 

"I  waited  till  Mrs.  Thwait  came  home 
from  the  city,"  she  explained,  "for  I  could 
n't  think  of  leaving  Patricia  alone.  She  is 
163 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

suffering  terribly !  I  had  forgotten  that  the 
young  could  suffer  like  that." 

"Then  it  was  her  father  who  blew  up  the 
dam!"  cried  Rue. 

"  She  does  n't  say  so,  poor  child,  but  she 
knows  it.  Some  word  was  brought  her,  I  feel 
sure,  by  one  of  her  father's  old  pals,  and  she 
ran  frantically  to  her  father's  cabin,  hoping 
to  stop  him.  She  reached  there  just  as  the 
explosion  occurred.  Even  though  she  realizes 
that  others  must  know  the  truth,  she  has  her 
mind  made  up  to  say  nothing.  She  never 
once  mentioned  her  father  —  never  once 
wondered  where  he  was.  The  only  thing  she 
said  was,  'A  man  in  his  right  senses  would 
n't  do  a  thing  like  that,  would  he?'  And  of 
course  I  said  no." 

"Oh,  how  wise  you  are,  mother!"  Rue 
said.  "I  thought  that  all  out  last  night  for 
myself.  He  was  n't  thinking  right,  was  he  ? 
It  was  all  a  sort  of  blunder  —  a  terrible  mis- 
take." 

"Yes,  daughter.    By  the  way,  I'll  never 
call  Dalroy  a  mean  little  town  again." 
164 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

"I  should  think  this  was  the  very  time 
you  would  be  doing  it,  after  what  happened 
last  night." 

"The  town  itself  had  no  more  to  do  with 
that  deed  than  you  or  I  did.  This  morning 
every  one  is  gathering  round  Mr.  Harmon 
offering  to  help  him.  Half  a  dozen  of  them 
have  offered  to  lend  him  money  to  get  back  on 
his  feet  again.  I  saw  Robert  and  John  on  the 
street,  and  they  are  coming  here  for  luncheon. 
Have  you  marketed  yet,  Rue?" 

"She's  done  everything,"  Annie  Dee  put 
in.  "I've  tried  to  prove  myself  worthy  by 
attending  to  something,  but  she  got  ahead  of 
me  every  time;  so  I  just  gave  up  and  took  to 
reading  the  magazines.  Ought  n't  we  to  visit 
Patricia  this  afternoon,  mother?" 

"We'll  talk  of  that  later.  Here  come  the 
men.  I  '11  change  my  dress  and  see  to  lunch- 
eon if  you  girls  will  set  the  table." 

"No,"  they  heard  John  Harmon  saying,  as 
he  and  Robert  approached  the  house,  "I 
don't  intend  to  have  any  one  call  me  a  quit- 
ter. I  'm  here  to  stay,  and  I  'm  going  to  build 
165 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

and  run  a  furniture  factory.  You  can  start 
on  the  dam  just  as  soon  as  you  please,  my 
boy." 

"Good  for  you !"  cried  Annie  Dee,  running 
to  the  door  to  welcome  him.  "I  knew  you 
were  of  the  Phoenix  variety  of  bird,  Mr.  Har- 


mon." 


"Well,  it  did  seem  rather  like  a  knock-out 
blow  last  night,  I  confess,  but  I  'm  a  man  who 
rebounds  quickly.  Besides,  the  Curtis  boys 
want  to  go  in  with  me,  and  they  stand  ready 
to  put  up  ten  thousand  dollars  this  minute. 
They've  been  looking  round  for  some  open- 
ing, and  this  seems  to  strike  them  just 
right." 

"And  will  you  be  safe  from  now  on  ? "  ques- 
tioned Rue.  "You  have  enemies — ' 

"I'll  attend  to  the  enemies,"  said  John 
Harmon  with  determination.  "Our  sheriff 
is  doing  his  best  to  ferret  out  evidence,  and  I 
Ve  sent  to  Chicago  for  a  couple  of  detectives. 
I  'm  pretty  sure  who  did  the  work,  but  I  want 
definite  proof.  When  I  get  it,  I'll  give  the 
perpetrator  —  or  perpetrators  —  a  chance 
1 66 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

to  see  how  solitude  will  act  on  the  disposi- 
tion." 

Robert  Wardell  turned,  straightened,  and 
looked  his  companion  in  the  eye  with  a 
strange  resentment. 

"  Harmon ! "  he  gasped. "  Patricia's  father !" 

"  I  can't  help  whose  father  he  is.  He 's  got 
to  take  his  punishment.  It  will  do  me  good 
to  see  him  in  the  penitentiary." 

"Oh,  it  would  n't,  it  would  n't!"  Rue  pro- 
tested. "You  think  so  now,  but  you'd  hate 
it  when  the  time  came.  To  be  out  in  the  free 
air,  working  and  enjoying  yourself,  and  to 
know  that  you'd  put  a  man  behind  bars  — " 

Harmon  broke  in  with  a  short  laugh. 

"And  you'd  want  him  to  be  out  merrily 
blowing  up  dams  and  committing  other  dep- 
redations, I  suppose!  What  kind  of  senti- 
mentalist do  you  take  me  for,  Miss  Rue? 
I'm  a  man  of  good-will,  I  hope,  but  I 'm  not 
a  fool." 

"Bob,  where  are  you  going?"  Rue  de- 
manded, seeing  her  brother  snatch  up  his  hat 
again.  "  What 's  the  matter  ? " 
167 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

Robert  Wardell  looked  round  the  group 
with  flashing  eyes,  as  he  paused  for  a  mo- 
ment on  the  threshold  of  the  outer  door. 

"  I  'm  going  to  see  Patricia  Quincannon," 
he  said.  "I 'm  going  to  ask  her  to  marry  me. 
I  want  every  one  in  the  country  to  know  that 
we  're  engaged  to  be  married." 

He  saw  his  mother  standing  with  a  white 
face  in  the  doorway,  and  looked  at  her  ap- 
pealingly.  Answering  his  look,  her  face  broke 
into  a  beautiful  smile. 

"You're  going  to  be  a  sword  and  a  shield 
for  her,"  Mrs.  Wardell  said  quietly. 

John  Harmon  stood  and  watched  Robert 
striding  down  the  path.  "Have  I  made  an 
enemy  of  him?"  he  asked  in  distress,  turning 
to  his  hostess. 

"  If  you  are  sure  you  are  doing  right,  that 
should  not  matter,"  she  said  smilingly.  "1 
should  think  that  you  were  superhuman  if 
you  did  n't  resent  the  destruction  of  your 
dam ;  and  I  should  think  that  Bobbie  was  a 
very  poor  lover  if  he  did  not  fly  to  his  lady  in 
the  hour  of  her  humiliation.  Life  is  a  tangled 
168 


THE  QUINCANNONS 

skein,  Mr.  Harmon;  but  let's  all  believe  in 
each  other." 

"That's  it!"  cried  Annie  Dee.  "Let's 
all  believe  in  each  other.  Oh,  I  believe  in 
every  one!  I  believe  in  Captain  Quincan- 
non!"  She  looked  at  John  Harmon  with 
bright  defiance.  "  Patricia's  mother  believed 
in  him,  and  they  say  she  was  a  dear.  Just  ask 
Lena  Rysdael  about  her,  Mr.  Harmon. 
She'll  tell  you  what  a  dear  Patricia's  mother 
was." 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    HARVEST  MOON 

ON  a  cool  Sunday  afternoon  almost  a  week 
later,  the  Wardells,  sitting  beneath  the  eaves 
of  their  cottage  in  just  the  right  mind  for  re- 
ceiving company,  were  pleased  to  see  John 
Harmon  coming  through  the  gate.  He  cast,  it 
is  true,  rather  a  longing  glance  toward  the 
Rysdael  Grove;  but  it  was  not  in  him  to 
fail  in  deference  to  Mrs.  Wardell,  who  had 
brought  a  motherly  graciousness  into  his 
lonely  and  matter-of-fact  life. 

"Work  for  every  one  next  week,"  he  began 
in  his  brisk  manner.  "Harmon,  Curtis  & 
Curtis  begin  rebuilding  their  dam  first  thing 
Monday  morning.  How  does  that  suit  you, 
Mr.  Engineer?" 

"Fine,  fine,"  said  Robert.  "You  could  n't 
bring  me  better  news." 

"The  Greeks  are  merry  as  grigs.  I've  just 
been  telling  them  the  news,  and  I  left  them 
whirling  round  in  each  other's  arms." 
170 


THE   HARVEST   MOON 

"What  are  grigs?"  asked  Annie  Dee. 
"And  why  are  they  merry?" 

"The  phrase,"  said  Rue  gravely,  "has 
been  brought  back  to  its  original  meaning  by 
Mr.  Harmon.  It  is  probably  a  corruption  of 
'as  merry  as  a  Greek/  but  most  persons  use 
it  as  being  'as  merry  as  a  grasshopper  or 
a  cricket/  grasshoppers  and  crickets  being 
'grigs/  or  little  creatures." 

John  Harmon  sank  into  a  chair  with  an 
expression  of  dismay  upon  his  face. 

"Every  little  while,  Miss  Rue,  you  sim- 
ply bowl  me  over  with  your  learning.  By  the 
way,  does  n't  school  open  to-morrow  ?  And 
you  become  one  of  the  notable  staff  of  teach- 
ers at  the  Dalroy  school?" 

"Yes,"  said  Rue,  still  grave.  "I  do  hope 
I  succeed.  I  mean  to  put  my  whole  soul 
into  it." 

"Isn't  she  delicious?"  demanded  Annie 
Dee.  "If  she  were  making  jelly,  she'd  put 
her  whole  soul  into  it  just  the  same." 

"Do  you  mind  walking  down  the  lane  a 
few  steps  with  me,  ma'am?"  John  Harmon 
171 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

said  to  Mrs.  Wardell.  "There's  something  I 
want  to  talk  over  with  you." 

Annie  Dee  dropped  one  eyelid,  but  only 
Rue  saw  her. 

"He  thinks  he's  going  to  tell  a  great  secret 
to  mother,"  Robert  said  when  Mrs.  Wardell 
and  Mr.  Harmon  had  passed  from  hearing. 
He  looked  sympathetically  after  his  friend. 

"It's  a  great  piece  of  news  I  have  to  tell 
you,"  Harmon  was  saying.  "One  of  the  rea- 
sons that  I  'm  so  glad  about  not  being  beaten 
is  that  I  'm  going  to  be  married." 

"Oh,  how  beautiful!"  cried  Mrs.  Wardell 
with  a  good  imitation  of  astonishment.  "I 
had  such  a  happy  married  life  myself  that  I 
love  to  hear  of  others  entering  upon  the  same 
experience.  Does —  does  the  lady  live  in  Dal- 
roy?" 

Mrs.  Wardell  was  as  near  being  a  hypo- 
crite at  that  moment  as  she  had  ever  been  in 
her  life. 

"You  bet  she  does!"  answered  John  Har- 
mon boyishly.  "  Please  look  over  there." 

They  were  opposite  the  Rysdael  gate,  and 
172 


THE   HARVEST   MOON 

down  the  long  avenue  they  could  see  the 
house  with  its  quaint  old  doorway  and  the 
slender  mistress  feeding  her  pets,  the  squir- 
rels. 

"Who  should  she  be,"  Harmon  went  on, 
"but  the  sweetest,  most  modest,  most  old- 
fashioned  girl  left  in  the  world?" 

"  She  is  lovely,"  Mrs.  Wardell  said  heartily, 
"  but  she  has  the  sort  of  loveliness  that  I  was 
afraid  no  man  would  appreciate.  She  will 
be  as  loyal  as  a  wife  as  she  has  been  as  a 
daughter." 

"You  could  n't  say  more  than  that,  could 
you?"  John  Harmon  replied  proudly.  "I 
think  you  can  understand  why  I  mean  to 
stick  right  here  in  Dalroy  in  spite  of  every- 
thing. I  could  n't  bear  to  have  her  think  me 
a  quitter." 

Mrs.  Wardell  felt  her  own  step  grow  light 
with  happiness  as  the  two  of  them  made 
their  way  back  to  the  house,  and  it  was  with 
a  shock  that  she  saw  Patricia  Quincannon, 
white-faced  and  strangely  tragic,  standing  by 
the  door.  Rue  had  her  arm  round  her,  and 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

Annie  Dee  and  Robert  were  before  her;  all, 
it  seemed,  were  deeply  moved. 

"It's  something  about  her  father,  I  fear. 
Oh,  John  Harmon,  because  of  your  own 
great  happiness,  be  merciful ! "  Mrs.  Wardell 
pleaded. 

She  gave  him  no  time  to  answer,  but 
hastened  to  join  the  group  by  the  door. 

"They've  found  father!"  the  girl  cried, 
stretching  out  both  hands  to  the  woman  who 
already  seemed  almost  like  a  mother  to  her. 

"Found  him?" 

"Oh,  I  mean  that  they  found  his  body 
twenty  miles  down  the  river  in  —  in  a  weir! 
Oh,  poor  dad!" 

She  did  not  weep,  but  turned  her  hot  eyes 
from  one  to  another  of  those  about  her,  seek- 
ing not  so  much  for  sympathy  as  for  some 
gleam  of  regret  for  the  taking-off  of  her 
father.  She  wanted  appreciation  of  him,  and 
Annie  Dee  saw  it. 

"What  a  cruel  way  for  such  a  great,  hand- 
some man  to  be  found,"  she  said. 

"Oh,  Pat,"  murmured  Rue,  searching  for 


THE   HARVEST  MOON 

some  words  of  sincere  sympathy,  "don't 
think  of  him  as  suffering !  I  'm  sure  it  must 
have  been  all  over  in  a  minute.  He  could  n't 
have  known — " 

The  words  brought  up  the  picture  of  the 
drunken  dynamiter,  the  man  with  hate  and 
destruction  in  his  heart,  the  creature  whom 
none  could  respect.  But  Pat  did  not  flinch. 

"He  was  a  criminal,"  she  said  slowly, " and 
a  hunted  man,  but  I  loved  him  in  spite  of  all ; 
but  perhaps  you  can't  understand  that." 

"  Pat,  dear,"  cried  Annie  Dee,  "why  should 
n't  we  understand?" 

John  Harmon  did  not  wince  beneath  the 
girl's  level  gaze,  although  he  realized  poign- 
antly that  it  was  he  who  would  have 
"hunted"  the  man  to  his  doom. 

"It's  best  as  it  is,  Miss  Patricia,"  he  said. 
"He  can't  belie  himself  any  more,  and  I  take 
it  that  is  what  he  was  doing  of  late  years. 
Every  one  tells  me  he  was  a  fine  man  in  his 
younger  days.  Yes,  it 's  best  as  it  is  —  God 
rest  his  soul." 

"God  rest  his  soul,"  repeated  Patricia. 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

The  words  seemed  to  comfort  her.  She  held 
out  her  hand  to  John  Harmon,  and  he  took  it 
in  both  his  own. 

Then  suddenly  she  turned  toward  Robert. 

"Of  course,"  she  said  swiftly,  "I  can't  let 
our  engagement  go  on,  Robert.  You  know 
what  the  name  of  Quincannon  will  mean  after 
this.  I  talk  a  great  deal  about  each  one's 
standing  on  his  own  personal  merits,  but  no 
one  can  get  away  from  his  family,  after  all. 
Oh,  Mrs.  Wardell,  I  never  really  meant  to 
drag  Bob  into  all  this,  but  when  he  came  to 
me,  when  I  was  so  desolate,  —  oh,  so  lonely 
and  desolate,  —  I  let  him  comfort  me !  I  'm 
stronger  now  and  — " 

"Hush,  Pat,  hush!"  said  Robert  sternly. 
"We  are  never  going  to  part.  Why,  you  be- 
long to  us  completely!  It  isn't  I  alone  who 
feel  that  way;  mother  and  the  girls — " 

"You  are  my  daughter,"  said  Mrs.  War- 
dell  gently,  and  drew  the  girl  to  her. 

And  Robert  added  softly,  "To-morrow, 
mother   and   you  and  I,  Patricia,  will  go 
where  your  father  is." 
176 


THE  HARVEST  MOON 

John  Harmon  strolled  to  the  Rysdael 
Woods,  and  they  saw  Lena,  tall  and  delicate 
in  her  white  gown,  coming  to  meet  him ;  then 
Robert  and  Patricia  strolled  to  the  woods; 
and  after  a  time  Gordon  and  Wylie  Curtis 
came,  and,  with  Rue  and  Annie  Dee,  fol- 
lowed the  lovers.  Mrs.  Wardell  was  left  alone 
in  the  silent  house. 

"It  certainly  is  the  crown  of  the  year," 
Rue  said  as  they  tramped  over  the  sweet- 
smelling  grasses.  "If  I  were  in  Lena  Rys- 
dael's  place,  I  should  want  to  be  married  now, 
in  the  fall.  October's  the  best  month  of  all 
for  a  bride  like  her,  whose  good  deeds  have 
borne  fruit." 

"I  hope,"  said  Annie  Dee,  "that we  shall 
be  asked  to  be  bridesmaids.  Being  a  brides- 
maid is  much  nicer,  to  my  mind,  than  being 
a  bride.  You  have  all  the  fun  of  a  wedding 
and  the  next  day  you  forget  all  about  it. 
Rue,  if  we're  asked,  you're  to  wear  pink  and 
I  'm  to  wear  blue." 

"What  we  wear  —  always  providing  we 
're  asked  —  will  make  very  little  difference 
177 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

to  any  one,  my  dear.  It's  that  sweet  Lena 
they'll  be  thinking  about,  all  in  her  white. 
Is  n't  it  queer,  Gordon,  that  we  did  n't  see  at 
first  how  sweet  she  was?" 

"Something  had  to  be  left  to  the  unfold- 
ing," Gordon  Curtis  answered  in  quite  the 
manner  his  Aunt  Amrah  Curtis  might  have 
used.  "If  we  saw  everything  at  once,  what 
would  be  the  use  of  going  on  ?  I  'm  sure  Dal- 
roy  did  n't  appreciate  you  at  the  outset,  but 
now  —  well,  the  town's  as  proud  of  you  as  if 
you  had  been  made  to  their  order." 

They  were  walking  along  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  Rysdael  Grove,  and  Rue,  looking 
through  the  trees  to  the  quaint  old  house, 
could  not  help  commenting  on  it.  "It's 
quaint,  is  n't  it  ?  Could  n't  you  tell  that  some 
unusual  person  lived  there?" 

"Which  is  the  unusual  person?"  asked 
Wylie. 

"Oh,  Mr.  Rysdael,  of  course!  He's  really 

marvelous.    He  brought  over  part  of  what 

he 's  written  for  his  book  on  lichens  to  show 

us  yesterday.  The  illustrations  are  to  be  in 

178 


THE   HARVEST  MOON 

color,  and,  do  you  know,  he 's  painted  them 
himself,  yet  no  one  had  thought  of  him  as  an 
artist.  He  said  that  he  was  n't,  but  that  of 
course  he  could  paint  the  lichens." 

"John  Harmon  is  so  fond  of  prosperous- 
looking  places  and  smart  clothes  and  the 
latest  automobiles,"  Gordon  remarked,  "that 
I  wonder  whether  he  '11  be  willing  to  live  in 
the  Rysdaels'  old  place." 

"I  warrant  he  will,"  Rue  declared.  "He 
would  n't  think  of  taking  Lena  away  from 
her  squirrels  and  her  birds,  and  he'd  be  much 
too  kind  to  ask  her  to  leave  her  father.  To 
ask  Mr.  Rysdael  to  leave  this  old  place  would 
be  an  unthought-of  cruelty." 

"If  he  were  my  father,"  said  Annie  Dee, 
"  I  'd  do  anything  he  wanted  me  to.  You  have 
to  know  him  at  home  to  get  any  idea  how 
nice  he  is.  Now,  you  would  n't  think  he'd 
like  verses,  would  you,  but  he  was  delighted 
when  I  showed  him  'The  Elves." 

The  leaves  on  the  ground  were  not  deep 
yet,  —  the  young  people  could  not  rustle  in 
them  as  they  would  be  able  to  do  a  month 
179 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

later,  —  but  they  were  falling  and  the  air 
was  gay  with  them.  Goldenrod  and  aster 
made  the  wayside  regal;  the  sumacs  were 
growing  in  splendor.  Over  the  spirits  of  the 
young  people  crept  a  quiet  and  happy  mood. 

Patricia  and  Robert  joined  them  after  a 
while,  and  they  all  turned  back  through  the 
woods.  They  were  not  surprised  to  see  Lena 
and  John  Harmon  walking  together  in  a 
grove.  The  air  was  golden  now  —  flooded 
with  all  the  splendor  of  the  sunset. 

"Oh,  how  happy  they  are !"  cried  Patricia, 
with  a  sudden  poignant  envy. 

"Don't  envy  them,  Pat,"  Annie  Dee  an- 
swered. "They  have  only  just  learned  how 
to  be  happy.  Oh,  who  is  that?" 

A  little  woman,  carrying  a  bouquet  of  fall 
leaves  in  her  hand,  was  coming  at  a  quick 
pace  through  the  woods.  She  was  dressed 
all  in  brown,  and  with  her  bunch  of  bright- 
colored  leaves  looked  like  some  respectable, 
middle-aged  dryad. 

"Oh,  it 's  Miss  Ferris ! "  said  Rue  under  her 
1 80 


THE   HARVEST  MOON 

breath ;  then,  seeing  that  the  woman  was  walk- 
ing straight  toward  Lena  Rysdael,  she  added, 
"Oh,  I  hope  she '11  be  nice!" 

It  seemed  cruel,  Rue  thought,  that  Miss 
Ferris's  sharp  eyes  should  peer  upon  the 
lovers*  happiness. 

John  lifted  his  hat ;  Lena  was  smiling.  The 
old  village  gossip  was  being  pleasant,  then ! 
They  saw  her  make  a  funny  little  bow  and 
hand  the  gathered  leaves  to  Lena  very 
grandly.  She  had  evidently  presented  them 
as  a  betrothal  offering !  She  bowed  again  and, 
turning,  hurried  away.  John  and  Lena,  ad- 
miring the  richly  colored  leaves,  walked  on  in 
the  golden  light ;  but  little  Miss  Ferris  walked 
alone,  and  it  came  to  the  minds  of  all  those 
who  watched  her  that  she  always  had  walked 
alone.  Alone  she  had  found  her  queer  little 
joys,  alone  she  had  borne  the  prick  of  sor- 
row. She  touched  their  hearts  as  she  walked 
there  among  the  falling  leaves,  bound  for  her 
solitary  home. 

"Perhaps  she'll  stop  in  to  see  mother," 
said  Rue,  answering  every  one's  thought 
181 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

"She's  not  turning  down  our  lane,"  Annie 
Dee  remarked.  "She's  going  on  home.  Rue 
ought  n't  we  to  go  to  see  what  mother  is  do- 
ing ?  Do  you  realize  that  no  one  is  with  her  ? " 

"But  it's  so  wonderful  here  now,"  ob- 
jected Gordon  Curtis. 

"Yes,  there  are  n't  many  hours  like  this," 
his  brother  agreed. 

So  they  lingered ;  and  it  was  only  when  the 
evening  star  showed  its  point  of  golden  light 
in  the  blue  depths  of  the  sky  that  they  turned 
their  faces  toward  home. 

Mrs.  Wardell  moved  about  softly,  straight- 
ening a  picture,  draping  a  curtain,  wondering 
vaguely  at  her  contentment  in  a  place  that, 
after  all,  was  so  new  to  her.  The  little  woman 
who  had  spent  her  life  in  this  humble  and 
lowly  place  must  have  passed  on  the  sacred 
essence  of  homeliness  to  her  successors. 

"I  like  it,"  Mrs.  Wardell  said  aloud.   "I 

like  the  dear  little  house  and  '  the  mean  little 

town.'  We  came  here  strangers,  and  now  we 

are  well  acquainted,  and  none  the  worse  for 

182 


THE   HARVEST   MOON 

the  struggle  we  had  to  make  to  win  our  place. 
We  Ve  all  made  it  —  Bob  offered  his  good 
work  and  his  heroism,  Rue  her  strong  good 
sense  and  her  beautiful  proprieties,  Annie 
Dee  her  light-heartedness  and  her  zest  for 
life,  and  I  —  well,  I  Ve  given  what  I  had  to 
give." 

She  lifted  from  the  table  a  picture  of  her 
husband  and  looked  at  it  smilingly.  He 
looked  so  young  —  he  always  would  look 
young.  She  knew  well  that  the  wrinkles  were 
gathering  in  her  face,  that  her  hair  was  whit- 
ening, and  her  step  slackening;  but  she  re- 
gretted nothing.  From  the  window  she  could 
see  the  rich  summer  set  toward  decline  —  the 
cool,  bright  day  move  to  evening ;  but  all  was 
well.  Anne  Wardell,  being  wise  and  humble, 
patient  and  brave,  would  have  had  it  no 
other  way. 

It  set  her  thinking  of  another  picture  she 
had  of  her  husband  —  one  taken  when  he 
was  a  cadet,  not  twenty  years  old,  at  a  mili- 
tary academy.  She  remembered  how  high  he 
had  carried  his  head  and  how  full  of  life  and 
183 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

hope  his  eyes  had  looked.  The  picture,  she 
thought,  must  be  in  a  certain  trunk  in  the 
storeroom,  and  with  almost  girlish  eagerness 
she  climbed  the  stairs  that  led  to  the  attic. 

Once  there,  with  the  light  streaming  in 
through  the  tiny  windows,  she  enjoyed  her- 
self in  that  spirit  of  gentle  retrospection  and 
mild  adventure  peculiar  to  searchers  in  such 
storehouses  of  memories.  She  had  gone 
through  two  trunks  without  finding  what  she 
was  searching  for,  and  was  just  about  to  open 
a  third  trunk,  when  she  saw,  in  a  far  corner, 
a  curious  mess  of  stuff  quite  inconsistent  with 
her  housewifely  tidiness. 

"Whatever  in  the  world  can  it  be?"  she 
asked  aloud,  and  poked  it  cautiously  with 
one  foot.  It  was  the  nest  of  some  animal 
tucked  away  under  the  eaves;  or  rather,  it 
was  the  cache  of  some  explorer. 

"It's  the  squirrels,  the  rascals!  They've 
been  carrying  off  things  and  hiding  them." 

Wondering  what  the  little  thieves  had  hid- 
den there,  Mrs.  Wardell  began  to  investigate 
with  a  stick.  She  found  strings,  bits  of  rib- 
184 


THE  HARVEST  MOON 

bon,  quantities  of  thread,  and  then  some- 
thing that  shone  and  glistened.  With  a  swift 
conviction  of  what  that  article  was,  she  pulled 
it  out. 

It  was  Rue's  lost  necklace  with  its  tiny 
topaz  pendant ! 

What  beautiful  news  this  would  be  for 
Delia  Sessions!  Mrs.  Wardell  could  hardly 
wait  until  she  got  downstairs  to  the  tele- 
phone. 

"Oh,  Delia,  is  it  you?  Yes,  my  dear,  this 
is  Mrs.  Wardell.  I'm  very  happy,  Delia,  for 
I've  just  made  such  an  interesting  discovery. 
It's  Rue's  necklace  —  I've  found  it.  In  the 
attic  in  a  squirrel's  nest  —  of  all  places !  It 
was  so  light,  you  see,  that  the  little  rascals 
could  drag  it  away  easily,  and  of  course  they 
liked  it  because  it  was  so  shiny.  I  knew  you  'd 
be  glad.  You  're  going  away  next  Wednesday, 
you  say  ?  You  have  the  position  as  instructor 
in  fine  sewing  in  the  settlement  house  in  Chi- 
cago? Well,  I  think  you're  right  to  go,  my 
dear  girl.  I  wish  you  Godspeed  and  a  thou- 
sand beautiful  adventures.  You  say  you  Ve 
185 


THE  NEWCOMERS 

found  an  old  friend  who  will  stay  with  your 
cousin  ?  Oh,  that 's  good,  is  n't  it  ?  I  '11  be 
down  to  see  you  to-morrow,  Delia.  Good-bye 
—  good-bye!" 

She  seated  herself  in  Miss  Amrah  Curtis's 
little  red  rocker  by  the  window  and,  folding 
her  hands  in  her  lap,  mused  happily.  That 
the  tears  trailed  slowly  down  her  cheeks  was 
of  small  account.  She  did  not  know  why  she 
wept.  She  told  herself  that  she  had  never 
been  more  at  peace.  So,  musing,  she  fell 
asleep,  and  in  her  dreams  the  lover  of  her  youth 
came  into  the  room  and  stood  before  her,  smiling 
and  speaking  her  name. 

The  sound  of  voices  awoke  her,  and  she 
started  up  to  see  the  young  people  trooping 
up  the  path.  John  Harmon  and  Lena  Rys- 
dael  were  with  them.  She  threw  open  the 
door  and  called  to  them. 

"Come,"  she  said,  "it's  time  for  supper, 
and  you're  all  to  stay.  Lena,  go  get  your 
father  to  come,  too.  When  you  come  back 
I  '11  give  you  my  kiss  of  congratulation." 

"What  a  burning  shame  to  leave  you 
1 86 


THE  HARVEST  MOON 

alone,  you  darling  one!"  Annie  Dee  said, 
kissing  her  mother  on  both  cheeks. 

"I  have  n't  been  alone,"  said  her  mother. 
And  Annie  Dee  thought  how  rich  and  beau- 
tiful her  voice  was. 

"Have  n't  you?  Who  has  been  in,  then?" 
But  Mrs.  Wardell  did  not  answer. 


THE   END 


(Cbe  fiitocr^ibe 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .   S    .   A 


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